TEHERAN: An Iranian passenger plane caught fire after its tyre burst on landing at an airport in Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad on Friday, state television said, but at least 30 were killed not 80 as previously reported.

State television said 148 people were on board the flight to Mashhad, home to Iran's holiest shrine, from the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. It said 62 people had survived unhurt, 47 were hospitalized and 30 bodies had been recovered so far.

State TV had earlier said the death toll was at least 80.

Civil aviation official, Reza Jafarzadeh, also suggested the death toll was lower than the 80 reported earlier. He told the official IRNA news agency that 97 people survived.

Jafarzadeh, said 148 people were on the state-owned Iranairtour plane, flight number 945, but he did not give a death toll. He said investigation teams were at the scene.

"Because some of the injured have been transferred to hospitals, we have no exact figures about the death toll," the managing director of Iranairtour, Mehdi Sadeqi, told state television.

Television pictures showed a broken-up plane lying on the side of the runway 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 plane.

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, state media reported.

"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.

Pilgrims flock to Mashhad throughout the year to visit the tomb of Imam Reza, the eighth Muslim Shi'ite imam. It was not clear if any of those on board the Iranairtour flight were making the pilgrimage.

Bandar Abbas, where the plane began its journey, is the Islamic Republic's main port. Nearby the port is the popular Iranian holiday destination of Qeshm Island.

Air safety experts say Iran has a poor safety record with a string of crashes in recent decades.

The last major plane disaster in Iran involved a military plane which crashed in January, killing at least 11 people. Another military plane hit a tower block in Teheran in December, killing 94 people on board and at least 22 people on the ground.

Source: China Daily/agencies