At least 120 people were killed when a passenger plane caught fire after running off the runway and crashing into a concrete fence at an airport in South Korea.
Two crew members were rescued after the accident, which occurred on Sunday at 9:03 a.m. local time (00:03 GMT).
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the plane, a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800, was returning from Bangkok and among its passengers were two Thai citizens.
The National Fire Agency said rescuers rushed to extract people from the Jeju Air plane carrying 181 passengers at the airport in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul.
She added that the fire agency deployed 32 fire engines and several helicopters to contain the fire.
The fire agency said at least 120 people — 57 women, 54 men and nine others whose gender was not immediately identified — died in the fire.
The death toll is expected to rise further as the rest of the passengers on board are still missing about six hours after the accident – making it one of the worst aviation disasters to hit South Korea.
Video footage broadcast by YTN Television showed the Jeju Air plane sliding across the airstrip, with its landing gear apparently still locked, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the airport.
Other local television stations broadcast footage showing thick plumes of black smoke emanating from the plane as it caught fire.
Rescue workers continue to search for bodies scattered due to the impact of the accident, Lee Jeong-hyun, head of Muan Fire Station, said in a televised press conference.
He added that the plane was destroyed, and only its tail remained among the wreckage.
Lee said workers are looking into various possibilities about the cause of the accident, including whether the plane hit birds that caused mechanical problems.
Government investigators have arrived at the site to investigate the cause of the accident and fire, Jo Jung-wan, a senior Ministry of Transport official, told reporters separately.
