Twenty-two people were killed in a passenger plane crash near Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty, an emergency services official said.

All passengers on board perished, according to Yuri Ilyin, deputy head of the emergencies department in Almaty, at the scene of the crash near the village of Kyzyl Tu, as quoted by international news agencies.

The plane had been en route from the city of Kokshetau in northern Kazakhstan to Almaty in the southeast of the country when it crashed near the village of Kyzyl Tu, Interfax news agency said.

Almaty and the surrounding area were veiled in thick fog on Tuesday.

The SCAT airline which operated the crashed flight is based in Kazakhstan and operates extensive domestic services and some international flights.

It was the second plane crash in the Central Asian country and former Soviet republic in just a over a month.

On December 25, a military transport airplane crashed in bad weather near the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent, killing all 27 people on board.