A total of eight crew members of a Ukrainian cargo plane were killed after it crashed in northern Greece on Saturday night.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko confirmed reports that Antonov An-12, a Ukrainian cargo plane crashed overnight in northern Greece, killing all eight crew members on board.

According to reports, the crash occurred near the Greek city of Kavala,

Preliminary investigation found failure in one of the plane's engines, which likely caused the crash, said Ukrainian spokesman Nikolenko, adding that the all the crew members were Ukranian nationals.

\The aircraft was a commercial flight on route Serbia-Jordan-Bangladesh and was carrying dangerous cargo, he further said.

The cargo plane was reportedly carrying around 11 tons of weapons, particularly landmines, to Bangladesh when it crashed on Saturday night.

Kyiv has set up an operational headquarters at the Consulate of Ukraine in the second largest Greek city of Thessaloniki after the accident, the spokesman said, adding that representatives of the Ukrainian consulate have already arrived at the crash site.