Firefighters worked to secure the wreckage of the cargo plane

The seven died when the Ghana-registered MK Airlines Boeing 747 crashed in Halifax, Canada, at about 0355 local time (0755 GMT) on Thursday.

Emergency services battled for four hours to quell the flames that engulfed the fuel-laden plane.

Earlier reports said six Zimbabweans and one South African were killed.

But later, Constable Joe Taplin, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said: "There were four United Kingdom passport holders, one German passport holder and two Zimbabwe passport holders."

The cause of the crash remains unconfirmed, but a Canadian air safety official told Reuters that a video of the accident appeared to show the plane's tail piece break off while the plane was still within the airport perimeter.

Previous crash

Steve Anderson, a spokesman for MK Airlines, based in East Sussex, UK, said the company was sending a team to Nova Scotia.

Although it is based in the UK, MK Airlines' fleet of planes is registered in Ghana. The air cargo firm has been operating since 1990.

In November 2001, four Britons survived when an MK Airlines Boeing 747 crashed on approach to a Nigerian airstrip. One crew member died.

The Associated Press reported a witness near Halifax, Peter Lewis, as telling radio station CJCH that he saw two explosions near the airport.

"A quick one followed by a second one that was bigger. And then we seen a very bright orange light, and I mean bright. It took up the whole sky," he said.

The plane had left New York loaded with general freight and tractors.