Kazakhstan says its acting border security chief is dead after his plane crashed near the Uzbekistan border.

A statement from Kazakhstan's security agency said the Russian-made plane disappeared from radar as it prepared to land in the southern city of Shymkent. It said Colonel Turganbek Stambekov was killed along seven crew members and 19 other members of the border security service.

Stambekov had been appointed to lead the border agency in June after a mass killing of 14 border troops at an outpost near the border with China.

Kazakh officials say an investigation into the cause of the crash is underway but that weather conditions at the time of the crash were poor.