Poland Will Hold Snap Presidential Elections after Lech Kachziynski Died in a Plane Crash

Poland will hold snap presidential elections after the president-in-office Lech Kachzynki, his wife and scores of other high-ranking officials died in a plane crash  in the Russian Smolensk airport earlier today, a government representative Pavel Grasov said, quoted by the Russian media.

According to Grasov the Chairperson of the Polish parliament Bronislav Komorowski will in a two-weekds' time anounce the date of elections, alegedly to be held in autumn.

Polish and Russian officials said no-one had survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk's airport in thick fog, reports BBC News.

Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers. They were flying in from Warsaw to mark 70 years since the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces.

The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told. Tusk, who runs the day-to-day business of government, has called an emergency meeting of ministers.

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT). Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.

"As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president's aircraft did not make it to the landing strip. According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no survivors in that crash," he said.

Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, also said it could be assumed with "great certainty" that no-one had survived. "We still cannot fully understand the scope of this tragedy and what it means for us in the future. Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland," he said.

It is unclear how many people were on board. Polish officials said the delegation was 88-strong, and local officials said 96 people had been killed. Russian investigators had earlier said there were a total of 132 people on the plane.

Russian media carried claims that the plane's crew were at fault for the crash.

"The pilot was advised to land in Minsk, but decided to land in Smolensk," said Andrei Yevseyenkov, a Smolensk regional government spokesman.