File photo of an autoroute leading to the mountains at Chamonix, French Alps March 8, 2002. REUTERS/Robert Pratta/Files

A small passenger jet crashed in a residential area in the French Alps shortly after takeoff on Monday, killing two people on board and severely injuring a young girl passenger, a local official said.

Firefighters found the girl in the wreckage, alive but suffering from multiple fractures. No one was reported injured on the ground.

The aircraft, a PRM1 twin-engined corporate jet, started having difficultly shortly after taking off from a small airport in the eastern town of Annemasse, about 5 km (3 miles) from Geneva, said officials.

"It hit the roof of a first house before it crashed in the yard of a neighboring house," state official Pierre Molager told Reuters.