YOGYAKARTA (Indonesia), March 7: An Indonesian airliner with more than 130 people aboard burst into flames and shot off the runway on Wednesday after landing in the Yogyakarta city, killing at least 21 people, officials said.

Witnesses and survivors described a horrific inferno that swept through the Boeing 737-400 of state carrier Garuda with more than 100 lucky enough to survive while others were trapped and burnt to death inside.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said four people from a party of Australian officials and journalists following his visit to Indonesia were among those unaccounted for. Downer was not on the plane.

There was confusion throughout the day over the death toll and even how many people were aboard the doomed jet, as Indonesian officials struggled with the second tragedy in two days after an earthquake killed dozens on Tuesday.

A local official put the initial death toll at 49, the airline later said it was 22 and the police then put it at 21. Garuda said 112 people came out alive, and that all but three had been injured.

There were also conflicting accounts from passengers of what went wrong as the plane came in to land at Yogyakarta, on the central island of Java, but the air force commander at the airport said the plane was going too fast.

“It ran about 300 metres off the runway,” First Air Marshal Benyamin Dandel told Detikcom news website. Parts of the jet, including the wheels and wings, appeared to have been sheared off.

Some witnesses said a tyre blew on landing. — AFP