Kenya Airways said on Saturday it had lost contact with a 737-800 passenger plane carrying 115 people on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi from Douala in Cameroon.

The plane was carrying 106 passengers and nine crew, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni said.

"We have no details at the moment as to what happened to our aircraft," Naikuni told a news conference.

Earlier, the company said the control tower in Douala had received the last message from the aircraft immediately after takeoff. The plane had been due to land in the Kenyan capital at 6:15 a.m.

The company said it had set up a crisis center to monitor events and a passenger information center at a local hotel.

The plane had landed in Cameroon after taking off from Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Naikuni said.

On January 30, 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus A310 crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, killing 169 of the 179 passengers and crew.