South Korea tracked the drones crossing from North Korea over what is known as the Military Demarcation Line between the two countries after detecting them in the skies of the western city of Gimpo at around 10:25am (0125 GMT), the military said.

While scrambling to counter the drones, a South Korean KA-1 light attack aircraft crashed shortly after departing its Wonju base in the country’s east, a defence ministry official said.

Its two pilots were able to escape before the crash and are now in the hospital.

South Korea’s transport ministry said earlier that flights departing from its Incheon and Gimpo airports were suspended following a request from the military.

The suspension began at 1:08pm (0408 GMT) at Gimpo and at 1:22pm at Incheon and lasted for about an hour before flight departures resumed at around 2:10pm, a ministry official told Reuters.