More than 120 passengers and crew were on board the MD-80 airliner which landed at Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a flight from the capital Kinshasa.

The pilot failed to break in time to make a turn at the end of the runway, said David Blattner, head of the Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA) which operates the plane, adding that he did not know the accident's precise cause.

"The passengers were evacuated on the emergency chutes and in the rainy conditions, there were a number who were slightly injured," Blattner said.

The nose of the plane crashed into blocks of lava which have marked the end of the runway at Goma since a nearby volcano erupted in 2002.