Five dead in US mid-air collision

One of the doomed aircraft was reported to be a Cessna 172

A mid-air crash between two small planes has killed five people in California, including one on the ground as debris crashed on to a town.

Witnesses described seeing the two Cessna planes hit each other and pedestrians running as debris landed on car dealerships on Sunday afternoon.

Two bodies were thrown from one plane in the collision near Los Angeles and an employee on the ground was killed.

Investigators have not yet said what caused the accident.

The crash took place over the town of Corona in southern California, about 45 miles (70km) south-east of Los Angeles.

An investigator said the Corona airfield was "uncontrolled", with no flight control tower.

'Run! Run!'

Doug Champion, an off-duty policeman, said he saw the planes on a collision course.

"They looked like they would run into each other," he told the Los Angeles Times.

He assumed they were at different altitudes but then he saw one plane strike the other.

"There was no explosion or fire," he said. "They just hit, broke up and fell from the sky."

A Nissan salesman, Pete Argueta, said he saw a colleague and customers dashing for cover, screaming: "Run! Run! Run!"

The cockpit of one of the planes landed on his dealership, with a dead body inside, he told the LA Times.

Police said two bodies were thrown out of one plane on impact, one landing on a car and the other in a car park.

At the Chevrolet dealership across the road, an employee was killed by falling debris.