An Air France Airbus burst into flames after overshooting the runway while landing at Toronto's Pearson International Airport in a storm yesterday, aviation officials said, but all passengers were believed to have survived.
Toronto's City TV said all passengers aboard the crowded airliner apparently made it out alive, according to CNN.
Witnesses said the plane, which carried 297 passenger and 12 crew members, may have been hit by lightning as it came into land. Survivors said they "ran like crazy" from the wreckage.
"We were running really fast to get out of there," Olivier Dubos said on CNN.
Canadian television quoted police as saying that the pilot and a number of passengers had been taken to hospital. A Canadian reporter said two busloads of passengers were taken into downtown Toronto from the crash site.
An Air France ticket agent said the plane was its AF358 flight from Paris to Toronto, an Airbus A340.
"An Air France plane landing on runway 2-4 went off the end of the runway in the area of Convair Drive and the 401 area in Mississauga," Peel police Sgt Glyn Griffiths said.
Witnesses told Canadian television stations that the plane, had apparently skidded off the runway after landing amid lightning and rain.
Live TV pictures showed huge clouds of black smoke and orange flames billowing from the fuselage. Firefighters sprayed foam over the wreckage to damp down the flames.
The plane was lying off the end of a runway close to a main traffic artery. Some passengers were said by local television to have made their way to the highway from where they were taken to hospital.
Afternoon rush hour traffic quickly clogged up along the highway, Canada's busiest, as vehicles passed only a few yards from the crash site.
Witness Corey Marx, who was standing by the highway watching planes land at the airport, told CNN:
"It was about 4 o'clock. It was getting really dark. All of a sudden lightning was happening. A lot of rain was coming down. I didn't see the size of the plane but it was an Air France plane.
"It came in on the runway, everything looked good. Sounded good. Hit the runway nice and all of a sudden we heard its engines backing up."
Ms Marx said rescue workers got to the plane within about 40 or 50 seconds.