Police in South Korea have said seven of the 54 people rescued from the wreckage of a crashed Air China plane, had died later in hospital.

The flight recorder of an Air China plane carrying 166 passengers which crashed has been recovered, Transportation Ministry official Kim Young-woon said.

Fifty four people are thought to have survived the crash of an Air China jet in South Korea.

More than 160 passengers aboard a Chinese plane were feared dead after the aircraft crashed near one of the World Cup host cities in bad weather early today.