Russian passenger jet performs emergency landing near Moscow

 A Russian passenger plane performed an emergency landing near Moscow shortly after takeoff on Thursday after birds were sucked into its engines, the airline and state media reported.

The Ural Airlines' flight was travelling from Moscow to Crimea's Simferopol, they said. According to the Ministry of Health 23 people suffered injuries, but nobody had been killed when the Airbus 321 came down in a field southeast of Moscow after striking a flock of gulls, disrupting its engines.

State television said the maneuver was being dubbed the "miracle over Ramensk," a reference to the district of Moscow region where the plane came down more than 1 km (0.62 miles) from Zhukovsky International Airport.

The Interfax news agency cited a source as saying one person had suffered serious injuries. RIA state news agency reported, that the airplane had 234 people on board.

"There was an emergency landing in Zhukovsky. Birds got into both engines. Engines turned off, the crew carried out the landing ... one kilometre away from the runway," TASS state news agency quoted Ural Airlines' general director, Sergei Skuratovб, as saying.