Breaking: Plane crash killed Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos and 6 more people

Brazil's presidential election campaign was thrown into uncertainty on Wednesday when a private jet carrying the socialist party candidate, Eduardo Campos crashed into a residential area near São Paulo.

Campos and the six other crew and passengers were killed in the accident, which occurred in bad weather as the Cessna plane was preparing to land.

The deaths prompted a wave of mourning across the country, which is likely to be followed by speculation about the effect on the presidential vote on 5 October.

Campos, a former Pernambuco governor with a business-friendly reputation, had shaken the political world by choosing environmentalist Marina Silva as his running mate.

The unlikely couple were in third place in the closely fought race to run Latin America's most populous and economically powerful nation. Silva – who was runner-up to Dilma Rousseff in the last election in 2010 – is now widely expected to head the campaign, though she has yet to comment.

Silva heard the news as she was recording a TV programme and immediately left the studio.

Details shortly