At least 153 people have died in the worst air disaster Spain has suffered in more than 20 years, after a plane carrying tourists from Madrid bound for the Canary Islands careered off the end of a runway during take-off and burst into flames.

Emergency services suggested that only 19 of the 172 passengers and crew had been taken alive from the burnt-out wreckage of Spanair flight JK5022.

The cause of the disaster was still unclear last night, although witnesses said a fire had broken out on the left wing, or engine, of the twin-engine MD-82 plane, which came crashing to the ground shortly after becoming airborne at around 2.30pm local time yesterday. Technical difficulties had delayed the plane's departure for around an hour.

The airliner skidded to a halt on a piece of nearby scrubland where it exploded and broke into pieces.

Plumes of white smoke could be seen emerging from the wreckage, near Madrid's Barajas Airport Terminal 4, while a fleet of ambulances rushed to the scene.

Pablo Albella, a Madrid city emergency rescue worker, said: "The scene is devastating. The fuselage is destroyed. The plane burned. I have seen a kilometre of charred land and few whole pieces of the fuselage. It is all destruction."

A police officer said the bodies were so hot that police could barely touch them and told a newspaper that the shattered wreckage bore no resemblance to a plane.