At least 20 people are reported to have been killed and scores injured after a plane carrying holidaymakers swerved off a runway at Madrid's Barajas airport on takeoff and burst into flames.

Clouds of smoke were seen billowing from the runway after flight JK5022, which had been bound for the popular tourist destination of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, off of West Africa, crashed at Terminal Four on Wednesday.

"It is a catastrophe," an emergency rescue service official said, as crews removed bodies and injured people from the aircraft belonging to Spanish airline Spanair.

Joanne Levine, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the airport, said: "Black smoke is rising from the plane and the airport has been shut down.

"Ambulances are heading towards the scene."

Helicopters and fire engines pumped water onto the burning plane, which had crashed into a wooded area at the end of the runway.

The MD-80 plane, which can carry up to 166 passengers, is operated by Spanair, Spain's second-biggest airline after Iberia, and is a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS.