At least 36 people died on Wednesday, September 7, when the plane carrying Russia’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice-hockey team crashed during take-off near Yaroslavl, some 300km from Moscow, emergency officials said.

Two people survived the crash, investigators said.

The Yak-42 plane was carrying the team to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, for the start of the new Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

The plane crashed at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (noon GMT).

The side, which includes players from Germany, Sweden, and Slovakia, has won the Russian championship three times and took third place in the KHL last year.

The plane fell to earth straight after take-off and burst into flames.

"Passenger body parts were found in the Volga River, where part of the fuselage fell," a police source said. He added that the passenger list had not yet been confirmed, RIA Novosti reported.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, founded in 1949 as the team of the Railways Ministry, is one of Russia’s leading hockey teams and came runner up in the nascent Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 and 2009. In 1997 it took the Russian Superleague title and won back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003. It was one of the favorites for this year’s Kontinental Hockey League.