A DHL cargo plane crashed near Lithuania's Vilnius airport on Monday at about 5:30am local time, killing one person and injuring three others, airport, police and firefighter officials said.

Rescue services said the plane hit the ground and slid at least 100 metres before crashing into the building.

Firefighters were seen pouring water onto large smoke from a building 1.3 kilometres north of the airport runway.

"The city's special services are working at the scene and leading the rescue efforts, as well as crews from the Vilnius Airport Fire Service," a spokesperson from Vilnius Airport said.

The aeroplane, which was operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL, took off from Leipzig and fell on a house, a spokesperson for the governmental National Crisis Management Center said.

Police confirmed the building was a two-storey residential house and 12 people were safely evacuated.

The head of the National Crisis Management Centre said the cause of the crash was being investigated.

"It fell a few kilometres before the airport, it just skidded for a few hundred meters, its debris somewhat caught a residential house," said Police Commissioner-General Renatas Požėla.

"Residential infrastructure around the house was on fire, and the house was slightly damaged, but we managed to evacuate people."

A large police and ambulance presence was seen nearby and several nearby major streets were cordoned off.

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24, analysed by The Associated Press, showed the aircraft made a turn to the north of the airport, lining up for landing, before crashing a little more than 1.5 kilometres short of the runway.

Authorities did not immediately offer a cause for the crash.

The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. The carrier could not be immediately reached. 

An airport spokesperson said the plane was a Boeing 737-400 BA.N.

The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that is not unusual for cargo flights.

Reuters/AP