June 28 (UPI) — A small plane carrying a group of skydivers and their instructors crashed Sunday in northeastern France, killing 11, local officials said.

The plane crashed along a bike path in the town of Tomblaine outside the city of Nancy in the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, French emergency officials said, as reported by Sky News.

Among the dead were the pilot, five students and five instructors. No one on the ground was injured or killed.

Yves Séguy, an official of Meurthe-et-Moselle, said the crash was close to an urban shopping center.

“Give or take a few meters and the accident could have caused collateral casualties,” Séguy said.

He said the plane, a 25-year-old Pilatus PC-6 aircraft registered in Germany, took off from Nancy-Essey aerodrome. It crashed along the bike path near the end of the runway shortly after takeoff.

CNN reported that French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez was en route to the crash site.

Local media outlet BFMTV reported that the five students were nurses taking part in what “seems to have been a hazing ritual,” citing the regional nurses organization, the Meurthe-et-Moselle Council of Independent Nurses. Francois Pelissier, an official at the aerodrome, said some of the students had received the skydiving experience as a gift.