SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - One of the two teenage Chinese girls who died in the Asiana plane crash at San Francisco airport on Saturday was run over by a fire truck rushing to the scene, a police department official said on Friday, though it is not known whether she was still alive at the time.

"The passenger was underneath the fire retardant foam and when the fire truck repositioned itself to battle the flames aboard the fuselage, the passenger victim was discovered in the tire track of the fire truck," said Albie Esparza, public information officer at the San Francisco Police Department.

"It is unknown if the passenger was deceased at the time or if the passenger died as a result of the fire truck going over the victim," Mr Esparza said.

The coroner in San Mateo County, where the airport is located, has said he will release results of the girl's autopsy in about two weeks.

The crash of the Boeing 777, which was carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew from Seoul to San Francisco, killed the two girls and injured more than 180 other people.