Passengers had to run for their lives after a plane skidded on the runway and burst into flames before takeoff, video shows

• A passenger plane in China skidded off the runway and burst into flames early Thursday.
• Tibetan Airlines reported the accident, in which all of the passengers or crew were evacuated safely.

A passenger plane burst into flames on the runway as it tried to take off from an airport in southwestern China early Thursday local time, according to operator Tibet Airlines.

All 113 passengers and nine crew of the flight from Chongqing Jiangbei airport were evacuated safely. However, some were taken to the hospital with slight injuries, the airline said in a statement.

The plane, which was bound for the Tibetan city of Nyingchi, was "abnormally interrupted" and was "out of alignment" as it tried to take off, the statement said, without specifying further.

In a statement seen by CNN, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said: "After the plane skidded off the runway, the engine scraped the ground and caught fire."

Videos of the stricken airplane in flames and being doused with water have spread widely on social media platforms.

Chinese state-affiliated news outlet Ifeng News shared a compilation of footage from the site, saying the plane was bound for Lhasa in Tibet.

The Ifeng News footage shows people who appear to be passengers emerging from the flames of the burning plane and running across the airfield.

The videos, which Insider has not verified, show the plane at an angle to the runway, with plumes of smoke and flames engulfing the front end of the fuselage. Several massive jets of water are aimed at the fire, which is another shot that appears to have been extinguished.

Thirty-six people had bruises and sprains from the accident, CNN reported the CAAC as saying. According to the flight schedule, the plane was an Airbus A319.

It comes just weeks after the China Eastern airlines crash near the city of Wuzhou on March 22, which killed all 132 people on board.

According to the CAAC's preliminary findings, released in April, the flight's two black boxes were "severely damaged" in the crash. The body said it is continuing its investigation with an analysis of flight data and the remaining debris.