Tehran: An Iranian airliner caught fire after a tyre burst on landing at an airport in the northeast of the country on Friday, killing 29 of the 148 people aboard, state television said.
Earlier reports had suggested a death toll of 80. Nourollah Rezai-Niaraki, head of Iran's civil aviation organisation, told state TV that 43 people on board the plane had been injured but the rest escaped unharmed.
Television pictures showed a broken-up plane with parts of its fuselage charred. The cockpit appeared to be largely unaffected by the fire, as did much of the rear portion of the aircraft.
Firefighters were shown extinguishing fires in parts of the smouldering wreck and clambering over other areas of the fuselage, carrying out corpses covered in blankets.
The plane, a Russian-built Tupolev 154, caught fire at 1.45 pm (1015 GMT) after slipping off the side of the runway when a tyre burst on landing at the city of Masshad, site of Iran's holiest shrine, state media said.
"The flight crew and the pilot of this flight survived, and this will be a great help to find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible," Roads and Transport Minister Mohammad Rahmati told Iran's students news agency ISNA.
An Iranairtour official, who asked not to be identified, said the airline was contacting families of the victims. He also said flights to Mashhad had been cancelled after the crash
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