A fire broke out inside a passenger plane at Gimhae International Airport in the southeastern city of Busan, South Korea, injuring seven people during the evacuation.

South Korea’s firefighting agency said in a statement today that the fire broke out in the tail section of a Busan Airlines Airbus passenger plane before take-off as it prepared to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in Busan, 320 kilometres southeast of the capital Seoul, adding that all 169 passengers on board the plane, 6 crew members and a maintenance worker were evacuated using an evacuation sled before the fire was declared under control.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, while the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has formed a team to investigate the incident, as it plans to send seven officials to the scene to investigate the cause of the accident.

According to the ministry’s Aviation Technical Information System, the stricken aircraft had been in service for more than 17 years.