South Korea plane fire causes mass evacuation

An Airbus plane has caught fire at an airport of South Korea’s city of Busan, forcing the evacuation of all 176 people on board, fire authorities say.

They say four people were injured as they were escaping the Air Busan aircraft on inflatable slides in the south-eastern airport on Tuesday evening.

The blaze is said to have started at the tail of the Hong Kong-bound plane shortly before take-off. Firefighters – who arrived within minutes – were seen trying to put out the fire that spread to the fuselage.

This comes less than a month after the worst air disaster on South Korean soil when a Jeju Air plane crash-landed in the south-western Muan airport, killing 179 people. Two people survived.

The fire on board the Air Busan plane Gimhae International Airport began at about 22:26 local time (13:26 GMT) on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency said, citing South Korea’s fire authorities.

It said that firefighters arrived at the scene eight minutes later.

Photos later emerged showing the burning aircraft being doused with water.

There were 169 passengers and seven crew on board the plane.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Air Busan is a budget airline, whose parent company is Asiana Airlines.

Busan’s airport is located about 315km (195 miles) south-east of the capital, Seoul.