A light plane has crashed into a residential area in Tokyo, setting fire to several houses and reportedly killing three people.

The five-seater plane crashed at around 11am on Sunday, shortly after it took off from Tokyo's Chofu airport, public broadcaster NHK reported.

"Four people were involved in the accident and three of them were rescued, but we don't know about further details, including their condition," a spokesman at the Tokyo Fire Department said.

NHK, quoting police, said two people on board and one female local resident were killed in the accident.

At least three houses and two cars were on fire in the capital's residential district of Chofu near the airport, and the crash also damaged the roofs of other houses nearby, according to the spokesman.

"I thought it was flying quite low," a local resident who witnessed the crash told NHK.

Television footage showed firefighters battling the inferno, as well as the remains of the plane's tail.