200 killed as plane skids off runway and hits petrol station

All 176 people on board the Airbus-32 were killed when the plane ploughed across the airfield and skidded across a busy rush-hour road, before crashing into a petrol station and another building. The plane erupted in flames. At least another 15 people were killed in the carnage on the ground.

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Firefighters hose water on the wreckage as it continues to burn out of control

A man tries to comfort one of the relatives of the victims

While the death toll officially stood at 40 early today, it was expected to rise sharply as rescue workers, forensic experts and doctors scoured the wreckage in South America's largest city.

The flight was arriving at Sao Paulo from Salgado Filho airport in Porto Alegre in Brazil's extreme south. The plane is thought to have skidded off the end of the runway in driving rain.

"I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1,000C (1,830F) so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil," Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra said.

Emergency workers recovered 25 charred bodies from what was left of the plane and 15 others who were on the ground either died at the scene or in hospitals, a Sao Paulo official said. Ten more people on the ground were injured.

Up to 200 are feared dead. Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declared three days of national mourning

The runway at Congonhas airport has been repeatedly criticised for being too short, and two planes slipped off it in rainy weather just a day earlier, although no one was injured in either incident.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning for the victims. But presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said that no cause would be released yet because it was premature. "His worries now are with the victims and the relatives of the victims," Mr Baumbach said. "That is his main concern.

Medical staff start the process of removing victims from the crash site

Congressman Julio Redecker was among those on the flight but an aide did not know whether he was dead or injured.

It was Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year. In September, a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet collided over the Amazon rainforest. All 154 people on the passenger jet died. The executive jet landed safely.

Describing last night's crash, airline worker Elias Rodrigues Jesus said he was walking near the site when he saw the jet explode between the petrol station and a second building owned by the airline.

Relatives of the victims at San Paulo airport

"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook," Mr Jesus said. "I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulphur."

Tam Linhas Aereas flight 3054 carried 170 passengers and six crew members, Tam said in a statement. "Tam expresses its most profound condolences to the relatives and friends of the passengers who were on Flight 3054," the airline said.

Critics have said for years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its runway is too short for large planes landing in rainy weather.

In 1996 a Tam airlines Fokker-100 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport and down a street before erupting in a fireball. The crash killed all 96 people on board and three on the ground.

More relatives struggle to comprehend the news