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At least 100 people were killed Tuesday when a Sudan Airways plane caught fire after landing in Khartoum, Sudan, according to officials and Sudanese television reports.
Sudanese television reported more than 200 people were on the plane. Several injured people were taken to a hospital, the network said, but the number of injured was not immediately known.

The plane was arriving from Amman, Jordan, airport security officials said, and was landing in bad weather when it overshot the runway and caught fire. "Many people" are believed dead, an official said.

However, it was not clear what caused the crash.

The chief of the Khartoum airport told Al-Jazeera Arabic TV network the plane landed safely, but an explosion occurred in one of its engines before it came to a stop, about 10 minutes after the plane had landed.

Abbas al-Fadini, a member of the Sudanese parliament who was on the plane, told Al-Jazeera that "the fire was inside the plane."

"It started from the right engine and then spread to the inside of the plane," he said.
He was in the front of the plane, he said, and was among those who got out first. Flight attendants and crew members were guiding passengers to the exit, he said.

"There is nothing left of the plane now," al-Fadini said. "It burned down quickly. I believe that the gas load and the weather contributed to the burning of the plane."

Some passengers who had minor injuries remained at the airport, he said.

John Ukec, Sudanese ambassador to the United States, confirmed the plane was a Sudan Airways flight carrying 203 passengers and 14 crew members.

Sudanese television said 13 out of the crew members survived.

Sources in Khartoum told CNN the plane was an Airbus, either a 300 or a 310, with the capacity to carry up to 250 people.

The weather in Khartoum as the plane attempted to land was terrible, the sources said. Low visibility and heavy rain and wind followed a big sandstorm earlier in the day.

A pilot who landed a plane in Khartoum earlier in the evening reported a rough landing, the source said, and added that there was a lot of standing water on the runway. Sandstorms can cause crashes when sand gets into the engines and causes them to ignite, the pilot said.

Video from the scene showed wreckage engulfed in flames. Media reports said the initial landing of the Sudan Airways flight was delayed because of the weather, and the plane landed after the weather cleared.

CNN's Nic Robertson, who recently was in Sudan, said the nation is in its rainy season. "It's the time of year where you get massive rain storms ... just coming in very quickly," he said. "The problem in Khartoum is not just the rain, but it mixes with a lot of dust in the air. Khartoum is right on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The city is famous almost for these huge dust storms that blow in. So at this time of year, you get the dust, you get the rain coming together. It's bad conditions."

He said the Khartoum airport is very modern with a large amount of air traffic passing through.

The airport chief, whose name was not given, told Al-Jazeera the airport would be closed until 9 a.m. Wednesday (2 a.m. ET)