LIMA, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A Peruvian Boeing 737-200 went down Tuesday in heavy storm near the Amazon city of Pucallpa, killing at least 70 people, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said.

    "There were between 20 and 30 survivors" on the jet which was on a flight between the capital Lima and Pucallpa, Toledo was quoted by the local media as saying.

A pedestrian passes in front of the Peruvian TANS airline office in Lima. (AFP)

    Earlier, local radio station RPP reported more than 60 people have died in the accident, adding that there were 93 passengers and seven crew members aboard the commercial airliner.

    It said 24 people were injured and sent to public hospitals in Pucallpa.

    Toledo said he will do "all it takes to give all the necessary support for those affected by the accident."

    "I am going to closely monitor the rescue operation," he added.

    Meanwhile, relatives of the victims are arriving at the airport of Pucallpa.

    The victims include children and foreign citizens, survivors ofthe tragedy told the press in the city of Pucallpa.

Unidentified relatives of victims of a downed Peruvian airliner arrive at Jorge Chavez airport in Lima, Peru Aug. 23. (AP)

    A spokesman for the state-run airline TANS said the Boeing 737-200 plane, which had a capacity of 120 passengers, made an emergency landing without its landing gear in the jungle town of Pucallpa, 785 km northeast of Lima.

    Peru's Transport Minister Jose Ortiz confirmed 93 passengers were on board the plane. TANS declined to comment.

    "The plane made an emergency landing but without its landing gear," said a firefighter. "The weather was really terrible, there was a fierce storm at the time," said a police officer in Pucallpa.

    TANS, founded in the 1960s by the Peruvian air force to cover remote jungle communities, became a commercial airline in 1998. It has around 30 percent of the local market. Enditem