MADRID: An airliner bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the runway while departing from Madrid airport Wednesday and caught fire, Spain's national airport authority said.

Local media reported at least 20 people dead.

Spanair flight JK5022 was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, a popular vacation islands off West Africa, the company said. The plane was an MD 80.

Thick, white smoke billowed from the scene at Barajas airport. The airport authority AENA gave no information about the number of passengers or possible casualties. But the newspaper El Pais quoted sources at the Spanish Interior Ministry as saying at least 20 people died in the crash and 57 were injured. The paper said 166 people were on the plane.

An official with the Madrid emergency rescue service SAMUR said crews were removing injured people and bodies from the plane, calling it a "catastrophe." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name.

At the airport, helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4.

Source : AP