UPDATED 9.50PM A chartered plane with 81 people on board, including players from Brazilian football team Chapecoense heading to Colombia for the Copa Sudamericana final, has crashed on its way to Medellin's international airport.

Medellin's Mayor Federico Gutierrez said that it is possible there are survivors.

"It's a tragedy of huge proportions," Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where the chartered aircraft is believed to have crashed shortly before midnight local time.

He said ambulances and rescuers were on their way. It is not clear what caused the crash of the aircraft, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, but Colombia had been hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms in recent hours.

Medellin's airport confirmed that the aircraft, which made a stop in Bolivia, was transporting the first division Chapecoense football team from southern Brazil. The team were scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.

The team, from the small city of Chapeco, joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it to the Copa Sudamericana finals last week by defeating Argentina's legendary San Lorenzo squad.

The flight radar map shows that the LAMIA Bolivia RJ85, registration CP-2933 crashed near Medellin, Colombia.

Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper says there were 81 people onboard the plane, made up of 72 passengers and 9 crew.

El Tiempo is also reporting that hospitals in the region where the plane is believed to have crashed have been placed on "maximum alert".

A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.​

Medellin airport authorities released a statement, saying that six people may have survived the crash.

Comunicado de prensa N° 1: siniestro de aeronave proveniente de Bolivia. #TamoJuntoChape pic.twitter.com/OgS4OTmUlM

— José María Córdova (@AeropuertoMDE) November 29, 2016

The statement says that an aeroplane travelling from Santa Cruz in Bolivia declared an emergency because of electrical failures between the municipalities of la Ceja and la Unión.

A rescue operation involving local police, firefighters and the Colombian air force was immediately launched. Police are now at the sire of the emergency, which can only be reached overland because of poor visibility.

"At the moment we know that the disaster happened in Cerro Gordo the municipality of La Unión and that there were 72 passengers and nine crew aboard, including the football team Chapocoense Real. There are reported to be six survivors," it reads.