Dhaka, March 27 -- China confirmed late on Saturday that all 132 passengers and crew on a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed this week had died.

Flight MU5735 was travelling from the southwestern city of Kunming to the port city of Guangzhou on Monday when it plummeted from cruising altitude to crash in a heavily forested area of Guangxi region, reports Reuters.

There had been little hope of finding any survivors. Speaking to reporters on Saturday night, Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), confirmed that there were no signs of life from the crash site and all 123 passengers and 9 crew members had been killed, state media said.

The search team had earlier said it had identified DNA ...