MOSCOW: Eighty-eight people were killed when a passenger jet, flying from Moscow to the Ural Mountains city of Perm, crashed while preparing to land early yesterday.

President Hu Jintao last night sent a message of condolences to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said there was no indication of terrorists' involvement in the crash of the Boeing-737-500, which went down on the outskirts of Perm around 3:15 am (7 am Beijing time).