90 people perished  on a jet which crashed into the Mediterranean after taking off from Beirut, a Lebanese minister said yesterday.

The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the sea just minutes after leaving the ground, with witnesses saying they saw a 'ball of fire'.

Four bodies have already been recovered and wreckage can be seen in the sea near the crash site, two miles off the coast.

Lebanon's transportation minister Ghazi Aridi said two Britons of Lebanese origin were among the passengers on board, with the rest being mainly Lebanese and Ethiopian.

A Foreign Office spokesman was unable to verify the report, saying British embassy officials in Lebanon were checking.

The Boeing 737-800 took off from Beirut at around 2.30am local time (12.30am GMT) heading for the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, said Mr Aridi.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but police ruled out terrorism and said it was probably weather-related.

Heavy rain and lightning had been reported in the area.

Helicopters and naval ships scoured the choppy waters in search of the plane, which was carrying 83 passengers and seven crew.

Mr Aridi said the passengers were 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and the two Britons.

The wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon was on the plane, according to an embassy official.

Relatives later began arriving at Beirut airport, many of them crying and hugging one another. They were led into a VIP area.

Ethiopian Airlines said on its website: 'A team is already working on gathering all pertinent information.

'An investigative team has already been dispatched

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which could not immediately be reached for comment, has positioned itself as a major player in international air traffic in Africa and has recently expanded its Asian network.

Last Friday it announced an order for 10 of Boeing's Next-Generation 737-800s for a total price of £475 million.

The airline has long had a reputation for high-quality service compared with other African airlines, with two notable crashes in more than 20 years.

A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines jet crash-landed off the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean when it ran out of fuel in November 1996, killing 126 of the 175 people on board.

The plane had just left Addis Ababa when three hijackers stormed the cockpit and demanded to be taken to Australia.

In September 1988, an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed shortly after taking off when it ran into a flock of birds, killing 31 of the 104 people on board.

By Daily Mail