A military jet on a routine training flight crashed into a house in southern China on Tuesday, setting the building on fire and injuring several people inside, state media reported.

China Central Television said the pilot ejected and parachuted to safety before the crash in Shantou city in Guangdong province. It said one of the four people inside the house managed to escape. The three others were hospitalized and one, a 26-year-old woman, was in critical condition, it said.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that four civilians were injured and received treatment at a hospital.

Citing the Ministry of Defense, it said the J-7 fighter jet had a mechanical failure just after takeoff from a Shantou airport.

The mostly retired fighter jets are a 1960s-era Chinese copy of the Soviet MiG-21.

The Shantou city government's emergency office referred calls to its propaganda office, where calls rang unanswered. Calls to the Defense Ministry's news office also rang unanswered.