At least 80 people were feared killed on Friday as an Iranian airliner burst into flames after skidding off the runway when one its tyres burst while landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
The Russian-made Tupolev 154 jet, flying from Bandar Abbas port to Mashhad, was carrying 147 passengers. Officials and state-run television said up to 60 people had been pulled out of the burning aircraft.
The Iran Air Tours plane skidded off the runway and crashed into barriers before bursting into flames at 2.40 pm local time.
Reports said many people died of suffocation and that some of survivors were in a critical condition.
The crash at Mashhad, home to Iran's holiest shrine, was the latest tragedy to hit the country's aviation industry, whose fleet comprises Soviet or old Western planes. The operations of the fleet have also been hit by sanctions imposed by the US after the revolution in 1979.
State television showed the plane lying flat without its wheels, with a large hole in the centre of its fuselage.
Its cockpit was largely intact and officials said the crew had survived.
Rescue workers used hoses to douse the plane and several corpses were seen on the ground beside the plane.
"As the plane was landing one of its tyres burst, forcing to it to swerve off the runway before hitting nearby barriers and bursting into flames," an airport official was quoted as saying to AFP.
"The pilots are trained to control the plane in such conditions so we have to find out what happened. There are three holes in the plane's fuselage," he said.
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