SANTIAGO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - At least eight people died, including a mother and child exercising in a public park, when a small police plane crashed on Wednesday into a sports field in Chile's capital, officials said.

The plane crashed shortly after it took off from a nearby airfield. It had experienced technical difficulties and attempted an emergency landing on the field in Santiago's Penalolen municipality, police said.

Police sources said the plane's six occupants, including two flight instructors and four students, died on impact.

Witnesses said elderly people and children doing aerobics in the park scattered as the plane came down.

"Grandmothers and children were doing aerobics. Most of them managed to escape, but some were trapped," one witness told local television.

Penalolen Mayor Claudio Orrego confirmed that two people on the ground were killed. (Reporting by Antonio de la Jara, additional reporting by Monica Vargas and Pav Jordan, editing by Vicki Allen)

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