Dramatic dashcam footage in Taiwan shows a TransAsia Airways plane scraping past a major highway just seconds before it careened into the Keelung River.

The plane, carrying 58 passengers, plummeted into the water after colliding with a bridge adjacent to the river.

Bits and pieces were retrieved by crane as emergency teams cut open the plane while it was still emerged in the water.

The death toll was expected to rise as night fell and rescue teams were still searching for the rest of the passengers.

“Fifteen survivors were pulled from the wreckage, 12 passengers remain missing,” Hsu Jon-wang, a Taipei fire department official said.

The plane was headed for the Kinmen Islands just off the coast of the southeastern city of Xiamen.

This is the second TransAsia ATR-72 to crash in seven months. The French-made plane crashed last July while attempting to land on the island of Penghu, killing 48 people and leaving 10 in critical condition.