Seoul, Aug 12: A US military transport plane crashed today south of Seoul, the US military said. It said it had no word on whether there were casualties, but South Korean police said two Americans on board died. The C-12 Huron, a small turboprop plane, went down at 2:43 pm 11 kms southwest of Camp Humphreys, a US base, the military said in a statement.

"Status of personnel is not known at this time," it said.

But a South Korean police officer said on condition of anonymity that two Americans on the plane died. Speaking by telephone from Asan, a town near the crash site, the officer said he did not know if there were others on board.

He said that the plane crashed in a rice paddy near a restaurant, and there were no casualties on the ground. The officer said the bodies of the victims were taken to a hospital.

Some 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war.
Bureau Report