At least 37 people are dead after a cargo plane crashed in a residential area just outside the main airport in Kyrgyzstan.

The Turkish Boeing 747 crashed just outside the Manas airport, south of the capital Bishkek, on Monday morning killing people in the residential area next to the airport as well as those on the plane.

Reports of the death toll on Monday morning ranged from 37 people according to emergency officials in the Central Asian nation to 31 reported by the presidential media office, which also said rescue teams had recovered parts of nine bodies.

Fifteen people including six children have been hospitalised.

Images from the scene showed the plane's nose stuck inside a brick house and large chunks of debris scattered around.

Several dozen private houses cluster just outside the metal fence separating the cottages from the runway.

Manas has been expanded since the US began to operate a military installation at the Manas airport, using it primarily for its operations in Afghanistan.
American troops left the base and handed it over to the Kyrgyz military in 2014.

More than a thousand rescue workers were at the scene by late morning in the residential area, where 15 houses were destroyed, Deputy Prime Minister Mukhammetkaly Abulgaziyev said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Minister Kubatbek Boronov told reporters it was foggy at Manas when the plane went down but weather conditions were not critical.

The plane's flight recorders have not yet been found.

The plane, which had departed from Hong Kong, belonged to Istanbul-based cargo company ACT Airlines.

It said in an emailed statement the cause was unknown.