Around 30 people were injured on board a China Airlines' (CAL) Boeing 747-400 when it experienced turbulence over east Malaysia.

A CAL spokeswoman in Taipei says around 30 of the 339 people on board were injured and of the injured, six were sent to hospital.

The incident occurred at 11.25 on 20 September when a CAL 747-400, was over Malaysian airspace enroute from Taipei to Bali in Indonesia, says the spokeswoman.

She says the aircraft was at 33,600ft when the turbulence hit, causing the aircraft to go down 200ft.

Inside the passenger cabin the 'put seat belt on' signal was switched on, says the spokeswoman.

"But it happened all of a sudden and [four of] the cabin crew were injured because they were" walking through the cabin "to see that people had their seat belts fastened", she adds.

Some reports say the incident occurred while the aircraft was over the east Malaysian city of Kota Kinabalu. Southeast Asia at this time of year is known to have strong winds and rains due to the Monsoon. Taiwan itself was hit by a typhoon on 13 September.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news