Two of the 19 survivors of the Spanish jet which crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 153 people, have spoken of the moment they escaped from the burning wreckage.

Ligia Palomino, a doctor with Madrid's Samur ambulance service, was rescued by her own colleagues who could not hold back their tears as they rescued her.

She remembers waking up among burnt corpses: "I lifted my head and all I saw were scattered bodies," she said.

The 41-year-old suffered a broken hip and later described how she had boarded the flight with her husband, José, and sister-in-law, Gema.

They were going to celebrate her 42nd birthday on the holiday island of Gran Canaria this Sunday.

"The plane left the gate for takeoff at 1.20pm but after we got to the take off zone, the pilot apologised and said he would have to return because of a technical problem," she said.

Palomino said she was left semi-unconscious immediately after the Spanair plane slammed into a field beyond the runway, but woke up when one of the fuel tanks exploded.

"I heard a horrible noise and I fled," she told Spain's daily newspaper El Pais.

Another passenger who escaped the inferno, Beatriz Reyes had been returning home to Gran Canaria via Madrid from a holiday in South Africa.

The bank manager, 41, recalled that she called her brother, Carlos, using a phone from a young male survivor while surrounded by burning wreckage.

She managed to tell her brother: "I've had an accident but I'm OK," before the line went dead.

Carlos then managed to track his sister to the hospital.

A minute's silence has been held in Spain to remember the victims of the disaster.

An investigation has begun into how the airliner packed with families going on holiday to the Canary Islands crashed shortly after taking off.

Among the 172 onboard the flight only 19 passengers survived, including miraculously three children - aged 6, 8 and 11 - survived and reports suggested the two babies on board were also pulled out alive.

Rescue workers are continuing to the grim task of sorting through the wreckage of Spanair JK5022.

The plane, bound for Las Palmas, had barely left the runway at Barajas airport when it veered into shrubland, breaking up and bursting into flames.

Spanair said the plane had experienced overheating in an air intake valve before a first attempt at takeoff, but it is not clear if that had anything to do with the crash.

Airport staff and emergency workers described the devastating scenes as they raced to put out the blaze and rescue any survivors from the stricken aircraft.

As smoke billowed from the wreckage, dozens of fire trucks and ambulances rushed to help, lining a nearby road and filling a field next to a swath of charred vegetation. Helicopters flew overhead, dumping water on fires.

Rescuers rushed the few survivors to hospitals, while emergency workers shrouded the dead in white sheets. One body lay on burned grass, an arm and a leg poking out.

Two civil guards told El Pais newspaper: "It doesn't look anything like a plane - it's horrific - everything is burnt.

"It's the closest to hell that I've seen. The bodies were boiling hot, we burnt ourselves collecting them."

Rescuers said some survivors had been hurled from the plane by the impact and landed in a stream, where the water shielded them from burns.

One woman, speaking at a Madrid hospital, said her twin sister had survived after being thrown from the plane.

She had broken ribs and was undergoing surgery but was otherwise fine, said the woman, who gave only her first name, Fernanda.

Ervigio Corral, head of Madrid's emergency rescue services, said some survivors were able to walk away from the accident.

But he and other emergency workers encountered a grim scene of widely scattered corpses, many of them those of children.

A long convoy of black hearses rolled onto the airport grounds to carry bodies to a makeshift morgue set up at Madrid's main convention center - the same facility used for relatives to identify bodies after the Islamic terror attacks that killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains in 2004.

Relatives gathered at the improvised morgue to identify the bodies, many of which were badly burned.

A driver shouted to television cameras outside the centre said: "I'd kill the bastard who did this."

Another passenger said: "Knowing the plane was bad, it took off with my seven-year-old niece."

Spain has declared three days of mourning. Flags in Madrid flew at half-staff and a silent vigil planned for noon. The king and queen plan to visit a makeshift morgue where relatives are waiting to claim the remains of their loved ones.

Witnesses said the left engine caught fire as the aircraft reached maximum speed and started to lift, causing the plane to crash to the ground and break into two parts.

The disaster apparently occurred during a second attempt at take off.

An earlier take-off was delayed after the plane's pilot reported a breakdown in a gauge that measures temperature outside the plane, Spanair spokeswoman Susana Vergara said.

Passengers were reportedly warned they may need to change planes.

Sky's Ian Woods, in Madrid, said: "I think what a lot of people here in Spain will want to know - and certainly the relatives of those who perished on the plane - is, if there was a technical issue with the flight which delayed its take-off initially and it was then given the go-ahead to take off - why was that?

"What was the technical issue which caused the delay and why was the go-ahead then given for the plane to at least try to take off and head for Gran Canaria?"

The Queen has expressed her condolences in a message to King Juan Carlos of Spain.

She said: "I was deeply saddened to learn of the dreadful loss of life in today's aircraft crash at Barajas airport in Madrid, the news of which has shocked us all.

"Philip joins me in sending our warm and heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends of those who have died and our best wishes for a speedy recovery to those who have been injured.

"At this difficult time all those affected by this tragedy are in our thoughts and prayers."

It is Spain's most serious air disaster in more than 20 years.

The Foreign Office is not aware of any British nationals involved in the crash.

A makeshift morgue has been set up at the city's main convention centre, according to Spanish officials.

By Sky News