A Delhi-bound Jet Airways plane with 139 on board skidded off a Dhaka runway just before take-off on Monday, but no one was hurt. (Picture on left)

The Boeing 737 veered more than three metres off the runway at Zia International Airport, said air commodore Saked Iqbal Khan Majlis, the Bangladesh civil aviation authority chairman.

Majlis said the passengers were evacuated immediately after the 10.40am (local time) accident. “It may take another four hours to salvage the aircraft.”

A Jet Airways spokesperson in Delhi said: “Guests of (the) Jet Airways flight were transferred to (an) alternative flight to Delhi this morning as one of the wheels of the aircraft got stuck in the mud while the aircraft taxied for departure. The matter is being investigated internally.”

The salvage operation was being done jointly by an air force team, civil aviation workers of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and engineers of Jet Airways.

Airport officials said all foreign and local flights had been suspended and an investigation ordered.

(AFP picture)