A Syrian rebel group says one of the Russian pilots who ejected from his downed warplane was dead on landing.  

AP quotes Jahed Ahmad of the 10th Brigade in the Coast as saying the two Russian crew members had tried to parachute into a government-held area after they ejected, but came under fire from members of his group. 

Earlier, Reuters reported it had seen video from a rebel group that appeared to show one of the pilots immobile and badly wounded on the ground.

AFP news agency is reporting that Nato has called an "extraordinary meeting" after the shooting down of the Russian jet.

"At the request of Turkey, the North Atlantic Council will hold an extraordinary meeting at 16:00 GMT. The aim of this extraordinary NAC is for Turkey to inform Allies about the downing of a Russian airplane," an alliance official told AFP.

This is the first time a Nato member's armed forces have downed a Russian or Soviet military aircraft since the 1950s, according to the Reuters news agency.

A UK Foreign Office spokeswoman has described the shooting down of a Russian air force jet near the Turkish-Syrian border as a "very serious incident". 

She said: "We are seeking further details urgently. Clearly this is a very serious incident but it would be unwise to comment further until we have more certainty on the facts." 

Oil prices have risen following news that Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syria-Turkey border and a weaker US dollar provided incentive for investors to buy more oil. 

"News of a military jet crashing in Syria is a reminder that there is still substantial risk in the Middle East," Bjarne Schieldrop, the Olso-based chief commodities analyst at SEB bank told Reuters news agency. 

Russian aircraft have flown hundreds of sorties over northern Syria since September. Moscow says they have targeted only "terrorists", but activists say its strikes have mainly hit Western-backed rebel groups.

Turkey, a vehement opponent of Syria's president, has warned against violations of its airspace by Russian and Syrian aircraft.

Last month, Ankara said Turkish F-16s had intercepted a Russian jet that crossed its border, and two Turkish jets had been harassed by an unidentified Mig-29.

Image source, AP

HaberTurk TV Channel releases footage showing a burning plane plummeting to the ground. 

You can watch it here.  

Asked whether Russia will invoke its right to self-defence as envisaged in the UN Charter over the loss of its military aircraft on the Syrian-Turkish border, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitriy Peskov replied: "Until there are clarifying reports, it is impossible to answer this question." 

He said: "So far, the defence ministry has not yet confirmed what brought our warplane down. We know for a fact that the aircraft was in Syrian airspace, above Syrian territory."

He refused to confirm rumours that President Vladimir Putin was planning to call an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council following the incident. 

But he added it is likely Putin may discuss the matter during talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Sochi today. 

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called the downing of a Russian Su-24 warplane in Syria a "very serious incident", but said it was too early to draw conclusions.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Russian jet crashed in the mountainous Jabal Turkmen area of Latakia, where air strikes and fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces were reported earlier on Tuesday.  

The BBC's Selin Girit says there are reports that one of the pilots has been captured by an ethnic Turkmen rebel group, but this has not been confirmed by independent sources.

Some reports are also suggesting that the remains of the plane fell into a Turkmen refugee camp. Turkmen have been fleeing Russian air strikes and the war with President Assad's forces. 

Turkey has previously expressed concern about the fate of Turkmen, who are ethnically quite close to the Turkish, in Syria.

Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford tells BBC World there is a key contradiction at the moment in the accounts from Turkey and Russia. 

She says: "While Turkey is talking about shooting down a plane over its airspace, Russia is saying first and foremost that this Russian plane was in Syrian airspace for the entirety of its flight and it claims it can prove that."   

Russian state media is also discussing the possibility that the plane was shot down by rebels with a surface to air missile.

"That is in direct contradiction to what the Turkish military is saying - that two F-16 fighters made repeated attempts to make contact with the jet which was violating its airspace and then shot that plane down."

Video footage shown by the HaberTurk TV Channel shows a burning trail as the plane comes down after being shot down.

Image source, EPA

BBC Monitoring

There's been discussion in the Russian media about what could have brought the plane down. 

Pundit Viktor Zabolotskiy, who heads the Federation of Amateur Aviators,told state-owned rolling news channel Rossiya 24 theSu-24 was most likely downed by a manpad (man-portable or shoulder-fired surface to air missile). 

That view was echoed by Viktor Baranets, military correspondent of the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. 

But pro-Kremlin military pundit Igor Korotchenko told Rossiya 24 the plane was flying at 6,000 metres making it unreachable by a manpad. 

BBC correspondent Jonathan Marcus has previously reported on how su-24s are vulnerable to manpads.

A press spokesman for Nato says it is "in touch with the Turkish authorities" but no further statements will be made for the moment.  

Video footage of the plane falling from the sky has emerged.

 It shows it disappearing by trees on the mountains near the border with Hatay province.    

The Russian defence ministry has confirmed its plane downed on the Turkish border, was an Su-24 fighter jet.

Image source, Reuters

BBC Monitoring

Syrian activists have been quoted as saying that one of the pilots of the Russian Su-24 has been captured. He is said to be being held in the mountainous Utayrah area in Turkmen Mount, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Arabic TV reports.