South Korea's military said it scrambled fighter jets as two Chinese and six Russian warplanes entered its air defence zone on Wednesday.

The Chinese H-6 bombers repeatedly entered and left the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) off South Korea's southern and northeast coasts starting at around 5:50 a.m. (2050 GMT Tuesday), Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

They re-entered the zone hours later from the Sea of Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea, joined by the Russian warplanes, including TU-95 bombers and SU-35 fighter jets, the JCS said.

The aircraft did not violate South Korea's airspace, the JCS added. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Kim Coghill)