A small plane has crashed into a backyard of a residential neighbourhood in southern California, in the United States, killing two people onboard and damaging homes, local authorities said.

The Ventura County Fire Department said firefighters received reports on Saturday afternoon of a single-engine aircraft that had crashed into two houses in Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles.

Police and the medical examiner’s office “verified there were two passengers in the aircraft, both of whom were fatally injured in the accident,” the county fire department wrote on X.

The two homes were occupied at the time of the crash but no injuries to residents were reported, the fire department said.

Photo and video images posted by the department showed firefighters on top of a house with holes in the roof, a fence and brick wall between residences knocked down, and the tops of trees sheared off.

The Simi Valley Police Department said officers had located the plane “in the backyard of a residence.”

Police told CBS News that the pilot, a passenger and a dog were aboard when the plane crashed at around 2pm (2am PKT).

The Federal Aviation Administration said, according to CBS, that the plane was a Van’s RV-10, which had taken off from William J. Fox Airfield in Los Angeles County and was heading to Camarillo Airport in neighboring Ventura County.

In January, a Van’s RV-10, a small plane with four seats, crashed into a commercial building near Fullerton Municipal Airport southeast of Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring 18 others.