YemenOnline.June 30- A Yemeni airliner with 153 people on board has crashed in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago.

Some bodies have been spotted, a Yemeni aviation official said, and wreckage of the plane located. It is not clear whether there were survivors.

The Airbus 310 flight IY626, operated by Yemeni carrier Yemenia Air, was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

It is not clear what caused the crash but officials say there was bad weather in the area at the time.

French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau told French radio the weather rather than the plane itself was the likely problem.

"They are saying the plane was making its approach, that it pulled out of the approach and then tried another approach that went wrong," he told French radio.

Reports say the plane was due in the Comoros capital Moroni at about 0230 (2230GMT on Monday). Most of the passengers had travelled to Sanaa from Paris or Marseille on a different aircraft.

The flight on to Moroni was also thought to have made a stop in Djibouti.

There were 147 passengers, including three babies, and 11 crew on board.

An airport source told AFP news agency that 66 of the passengers were French, although many are thought to have dual French-Comoran citizenship.

This is the second air tragedy this month involving large numbers of French citizens.

On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

'Aborted landing'

A search is under way, with the French military assisting with the operation.

Officials told AFP that wreckage from the plane, an oil slick and bodies had been spotted in the water a few kilometres from Moroni, on the island of Njazidja (Grande Comore).