A commercial aircraft carrying about 40 passengers and crew members went missing in northern Pakistan after it took off from a tourist resort near the Afghan border heading for Islamabad earlier today, reports news agency dpa, quoting officials.

The small ATR-42 plane lost contact with the control tower minutes before it was supposed to land, Pakistan International Airlines said.

Local police in the town of Hawalian - which lies between the capital and Chital, the town from where the plan took off - told dpa the plane had crashed in the mountains, but there was no official confirmation.

Pakistani military has mobilised troops for rescue and relief operation and to look for the wreckage after locals in Hawalian said they saw the plane go down in the mountains, the army's media wing said.

Meanwhile Reuters reported that there are unlikely to be any survivors, based on eyewitness reports.

"All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered," Taj Muhammad Khan, a government official based in the region, told Reuters.

Taj Muhammad Khan, who was at the site of the crash, added that witnesses told him "the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire".

- Agencies