Three dead in plane fire in Norway

OSLO, Oct 10 (Reuters) Three people died when a plane carrying 16 passengers and crew burst into flames after landing at an airport in western Norway, police said today.

''I can confirm that three persons have been found dead in the plane,'' police officer John Olav Olsen told Reuters.

Olsen said the plane had problems during landing at 7:37 a m (11:7 IST) in Stord, an island south of Bergen on Norway's western coast, and caught fire after sliding off the runway.

He could not provide further details or the nationalities of the casualties.

Police said 13 people were rescued from the wreckage. All were sent to hospital for treatment and three were flown to a severe burn centre in Bergen, about 60 km away. Three more casualties were on their way to Bergen, the hospital said.

The plane was chartered by oil services firm Aker Stord, part of offshore engineering group Aker Kvaerner.

The Atlantic Airways plane from Denmark's self-governing Faroe Islands in the North Sea was making a stopover between Norway's offshore oil capital of Stavanger and the town of Molde, further up the country's western coast, Aker Stord said.

Molde is the base for the huge Ormen Lange gas field, which will soon supply Britain with a fifth of its gas needs.

Public broadcaster NRK aired voices of anonymous witnesses, who talked of a loud boom, a fireball and billowing smoke.

Pictures from the site showin a huge smoke chimney above still burning debris filled Internet pages of Norwegian tabloids.

REUTERS BDP BST1627