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TOKYO—A small plane crashed into a city street in western Japan on Tuesday, scattering debris across a neighborhood crowded with factories and restaurants. The two men aboard escaped with light injuries, and no one else was hurt.

The Cessna slammed into a sidestreet beside a thoroughfare in Yao city, tearing off a wing and buckling its body nearly in half. The two men inside escaped the wreck and were taken to a hospital.

"The area is crowded with machinery and printing factories, shops, restaurants and houses," said Tadafumi Tanabe, a Yao fire department official. "If the plane had crashed into any of those sites, we could have seen a major disaster. It's pure luck."

A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy, said no pedestrians were wounded and the crash caused no damage to nearby buildings.

The cause of the accident, in the urban sprawl surrounding Osaka, Japan's second-largest city, was under investigation.

Kyodo News agency said the plane took off from an airport in Yao, but was returning to the airport due to engine trouble.

• PAL plane shuts Catarman airstrip for hours
• Firefighters' helicopter crashes in California, 9 missing
• No evidence recent Qantas emergencies linked--air authority

• Australian navy probes sex bet allegations
• Honduras expelled from OAS
• 3 dead in Indonesian plane crash
• 40 years ago man first walked on the moon
• Vatican hit by economic downturn–report
• North Korea test-fires 7 ballistic missiles
• Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to public