FIRE broke out on board a Boeing 737-800 plane about to take off in Beijing on Saturday, leaving at least two passengers in hospital with injuries suffered during a desperate evacuation.

The China Eastern aircraft, scheduled to fly to Wuhan, was taxiing for takeoff at Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday when smoke began pouring out of the cockpit.

The more than 120 passengers rushed to the emergency exits in the middle and rear of the plane, a witness said.

“My body jerked radically as someone screamed that there was smoke in the front,” Yang Jing, a passenger, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying. “It was chaos when people started to run.”

Yang jumped on the emergency chute, but grazed her arms on the ground when another passenger landed on her.

But she was lucky compared with a colleague, Wang Nan. Wang said a passenger pushed him off the plane as he was preparing to jump onto the slide. He fell 5 meters to the ground, fracturing his skull, left arm and right leg.

Another passenger, Liang Xiaolong, was also elbowed out of the exit but managed to land on his feet, narrowly escaping serious injury.

China Eastern confirmed that there had been a fire Saturday, but no details, including the scale of damage or cause of the problem, have been disclosed.

Thirteen passengers switched to other airlines following the incident, according to China News Service.

The cause of the blaze is unclear. According to unverified sources, passengers on the China Eastern aircraft Saturday each received 500 yuan (US$71.43) in compensation. (SD-Agencies)