Witnesses said the front wheel of the Garuda Indonesia plane blew out as it touched down, sending flames shooting into the air and triggering a series of explosions that sent the aircraft skidding off the runway.

 Australian diplomats and journalists covering Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's visit to Indonesia were among the 140 people on the flight from the capital Jakarta. Four of them were unaccounted for, Downer told CNN.

 At least 49 people were killed, including one person who died en route to hospital, local government spokesman Bambang, who goes by one name, told the Detikcom news website.

 The rest of those on board, including the seven crew, were pulled out alive from the wreckage of the plane, the state Antara news agency said, quoting local officials.

 Television pictures showed firefighters battling giant flames and thick smoke spewing from the broken fuselage as it lay smouldering in the grass off the end of the runway.

 The tailfin bearing the colours of Garuda, Indonesia's national carrier, was almost sheared off.

 Australian Prime Minister John Howard said up to 10 Australians were aboard the plane.

 "I saw many bodies, dozens of bodies badly burnt near the exit," Captain Yos Bintoro, an airport official, told Elshinta radio. "I saw people dead in the cockpit."

 Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa told Indonesia's Metro TV earlier that there had been 76 confirmed survivors.

 The incident is just the latest in a series of crashes and safety scares involving Indonesian airliners which have forced the government to set up a team to urgently improve transport safety.

 "I was sleeping then the plane slammed twice and I heard people screaming. It was dark and there was smoke everywhere. I saw many passengers hurt," said Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Indonesian Muslim movement Muhammadiyah, who was on the plane.

 "I was sitting not far from the emergency door. I felt someone guide me to the right," he said. "There were many people inside the plane when I got out."

 Ngadiman, a witness to the accident, told Detikcom: "The front wheel burst, then there was an explosion from the front and then the rear wheels burnt as well."

 Dozens of injured people were taken to hospital.

 "16 people were brought into the hospital, with injuries ranging from bad to minor," Paulus, from the Panti Rini hospital, told ElShinta.

 Around 50 others were taken to a separate air force hospital near the airport, Metro TV said.

 One of the injured is a foreign correspondent from the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper and was being operated on, said Widodo, a doctor at Sarjito Hospital.

 The Australians on the aircraft included one foreign affairs department official, a federal policeman and "at least five media representatives", Sky television reported from Canberra.

 Japanese officials said two Japanese nationals were aboard the flight, including 45-year-old Shinji Ito, a Sony employee who said he escaped out the back of the wreckage.

 "The plane entered into landing position and then suddenly dived. I thought it was all over for me," he told Japan's NHK.

 Indonesia's flight safety record has come under renewed scrutiny since an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 with 102 people on board crashed into the sea off the island of Sulawesi on New Year's Day with no survivors.

 Last Friday a Boeing 737-200 operated by local carrier Merpati Nusantara was forced to make an emergency landing on Batam Island after the pilot reported a dangerous oil leak.

Agence France Presse