SEOUL: A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, killing at least 85, emergency services said, with a bird strike and adverse weather conditions cited as likely causes.

Two people were rescued, the agency said, and an official told Reuters they were crew members.

The crash occurred as Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 175 passengers and six crew on a flight from the Thai capital Bangkok, was landing shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea’s transport ministry said.

The ministry did not confirm the reports of casualties.

At least 58 bodies have been recovered but that number is not final, another fire official told Reuters.

Two people were found alive and rescue operations were under way, a Muan fire official said. Yonhap news agency said three people had been rescued.

Authorities were working to rescue people in the tail section, an airport official told Reuters shortly after the crash.

Video shared by local media showed the twin-engine aircraft skidding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before slamming into a wall in an explosion of flame and debris. Other photos showed smoke and fire engulfing parts of the plane.

The passengers included two Thai nationals and the rest are believed to be South Koreans, according to the transportation ministry.

The plane was a Boeing 737-800 jet operated by Jeju Air, which was seeking details of the accident, including its casualties and cause, an airline spokesperson said.

Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

All domestic and international flights at Muan airport had been canceled, Yonhap reported.

South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok, who was named interim leader of the country on Friday after the previous acting president was impeached amid an ongoing political crisis, ordered all-out rescue efforts, his office said.

His chief of staff convened an emergency meeting.

LONDON: People smugglers are using TikTok adverts to lure migrants to the UK with “package deals.”

More than 150,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats from mainland Europe to try and enter Britain illegally since 2018, the UK said on Friday.

Traffickers have started to deploy new techniques advertised on social media to encourage more people to make the perilous journey in winter, The Times newspaper reported.

These include deals offered on TikTok for as little as £2,500 ($3,140) with payment only required on reaching the UK coast. The adverts said specialized handlers would collect the migrants, take them to rented accommodation and find them work.

The Times said the adverts were being run by Albanian smuggling gangs. One TikTok account named “Journey to London” offered deals to get people from Albania to England.

Another used a photo of the boat that would carry the migrants and the promise of a “secure crossing.”

The smugglers also offered to fly customers into the UK on stolen passports for £12,000. They urged one prospective client to make use of the Christmas period when airports are busier, The Times reported.

The recent calm weather has sparked a surge in small boat crossings, with more than 850 people making the journey across the Channel on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

While the adverts predominantly targeted Albanians, the highest numbers of migrants using small boats in the year up to September were from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.

A Home Office spokesperson described the smuggling gangs as “despicable” and said they were “exploiting vulnerable people by peddling lies on social media and placing them in horrendous conditions, working for next to nothing.”

“Anyone found to be doing this will face severe penalties and we are working with the National Crime Agency and major social media companies to rapidly remove online adverts promoting dangerous small boat crossings,” the person said.

TikTok told The Times it had proactively removed adverts posted by the users.

The number of small boat crossings hit a peak in 2022, when 45,774 people made the journey. More than 36,000 have done so this year.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to “smash” the people smuggling gangs, with the issue of immigration featuring heavily in campaigning for the July election.