Some 153 people were killed and 19 injured when a Spanair jet crashed on takeoff and burst into flames at Madrid airport on Wednesday.

A large cloud of smoke billowed up near Terminal Four from the remains of Flight JK5022, an MD-82 jet bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. It shot off the runway carrying 164 passengers and nine crew at 2:45 pm local time (1245 GMT), according to Spanair. ?The (plane?s) tail has broken off from the rest of the fuselage. It?s difficult to describe the scene, because it?s just a mess of metal,? an emergency services spokesmen told national radio.

The flight was a code-sharing operation with Lufthansa serving the Canary Islands, a popular holiday destination for tourists from throughout Europe.

High fuel prices

Thick columns of smoke rose into the air and police had blocked off both ends of the Terminal Four runway, where more than 20 ambulances and many fire engines were parked, a Reuters witness said.

Police escorted tearful relatives of passengers past reporters and dozens of workers identified as psychologists and social workers arrived at the terminal.

Dozens of shocked relatives began arriving at Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria, where they were taken into a room and offered counselling by Red Cross psychiatrists.

There was no immediate official comment on the cause of the accident but the newspaper El Mundo quoted a source on its website as saying the plane?s left engine had caught fire.

Spanair, a subsidiary of Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS), has been struggling with high fuel prices and tough competition during an economic slowdown. It has announced it was laying off 1,062 staff and cutting routes to turn the airline around after losing $81 million in the first half of the year.

Just hours before the crash, Spanair?s pilots threatened to strike.