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Brazil plane on fire after crash Brazil plane on fire after crash
(31 minutes later)
A plane has crashed into a filling station, starting a major fire, near Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A plane said to be carrying at least 144 people has crashed into a fuel and cargo depot at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, starting a major fire.
Reports said between 144 and 170 passengers were on board, but it is unclear whether they or anyone on the ground were hurt in the crash. There has been no confirmation of casualties, but emergency services have arrived at the scene and television images show the plane in flames.
Reports said the plane skidded on a wet runway after landing, slid across a road and crashed into a fuel depot. The TAM airlines Airbus A320 is thought to have skidded and overshot the runway as it landed in very wet conditions.
Local television said the aeroplane was a TAM Airlines jet, and that it hit a depot owned by the same airline. Concerns have been raised about the safety of the runway during heavy rain.
The BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo says Congonhas is an extremely busy airport, and that there have been concerns raised previously about its safety in the rain. There had been persistent, heavy rain in the two hours preceding the accident.
Only on Monday a plane skidded off the runway onto the nearby grass. On Monday afternoon, a smaller plane skidded off the runway onto the nearby grass in similar conditions.
The weather before Tuesday's crash had been bad all day, our correspondent says. Major fire
TAM Linhas Aereas flight 3054 was believed to have been carrying between 144 and 174 people when it attempted to land at Congonhas airport in the heart of Sao Paulo.
Are you near the scene? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC you can do so using the form below: The plane was travelling to the city from Porto Alegre in the south of the country.
You can send pictures and video to: yourpics@bbc.co.uk or to send via MMS please dial +447725100100. At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. After touching down on the airport's main runway, the passenger jet skidded before sliding across a busy road in a residential area.
class="bodl" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2780295.stm#yourpics">Click here for terms and conditions on sending photos and video It then struck a depot used by TAM for storing cargo and some fuel.
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Brazilian television has been showing pictures of a major fire at the scene and the emergency services have arrived in large numbers to deal with the aftermath of the accident.
Eyewitnesses say there has also been an explosion at a nearby garage, which is complicating rescue work.
Safety concerns
The BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paolo says the weather has been bad for much of the day and there has been concern for some time about safety at Congonhas during heavy rain.
In February, a judge briefly banned flights in and out of the airport, which is the busiest in Brazil.
Pilots had complained that water was pooling on the surface of the landing strip, making braking difficult and occasionally causing planes to skid out of control.
Remedial work, including putting grooves into the runway surface to improve traction, was subsequently carried out and completed on 30 June.
However, a much smaller plane skidded off the runway before stopping on grass in similar weather conditions on Monday. No-one was injured in the incident.
Air safety in Brazil has been a major issue since a crash last year when a passenger plane collided with an executive jet over the Amazon, our correspondent says.
Some 154 people died in that incident, which was the worst air crash in the country's history.