The injured were among 14 people on board the aircraft that was heading to Mizoram state's Lengpui Airport to take home the soldiers who had entered India last week, Indian police and military officials said.

Footage from local media showed the plane's cracked fuselage resting in a bushy area near the airport.

Nearly 700 Myanmar soldiers have crossed into northeast India in the past two months after anti-junta groups in Myanmar, backed by a pro-democracy parallel government, seized control of several military posts and towns near its borders.

Indian authorities have been sending back the troops within days of them crossing over.

An Indian military source said 276 Myanmar troops entered India last week after intense fighting close to the border, out of which 184 returned home on Monday.

(Writing by Bansari Mayur Kamdar; editing by Miral Fahmy)

By Krishn Kaushik