At least 120 people were killed after a plane with 181 people on board crashed at South Korea's Muan airport as it skidded off the runway while landing and burst into flames hitting a fence on Sunday morning, media reports said.

According to the Yonhap news agency, the crash was reported in the South Jeolla province when Jeju Air flight 2216 was coming back from Thailand.

Authorities rescued two people and continued evacuating passengers from the Boeing 737-800's rear section.

Some sections of the media also reported no survivors in the crash except for the two rescued.

Among the 181 on board, 175 were passengers and six were flight crew.

Emergency services were pressed into action at the airport around 9 am after the aircraft crashed into a fence following a failed belly landing attempt.

The airport erupted into flames and visuals showed black smoke rising above the crash site.

The crash is believed to have been caused by "contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear," said reports.

Jeju Air in a statement said: “We deeply apologize to all those affected by the incident at Muan Airport. We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused.”

Acting President Choi Sang-mok called for the mobilisation of all resources to save the passengers. "All related agencies must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel," he instructed officials in a statement.

This is the second air crash within a week after an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed on Wednesday in Kazakhstan, claiming 38 lives.

Azerbaijan Airlines' Flight J2-8243 crashed and caught fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities.