A British Airways plane has been forced into making an emergency landing at Sydney Airport after a fire broke out in the jet's cargo hold.

The jumbo aircraft was on Flight BA 16 to Singapore en route to the UK when the fire broke out in electrical wiring at around 1600 local time (0700 BST).

All 247 passengers were evacuated via a front exit after the plane stopped on the main runway and no-one was injured.

Passenger Mike Souter said: "All we could smell was the burning smell shortly after the plane took off."

Temporarily stuck

Lieutenant Commander Souter had been in Australia as part of the Royal Navy's team dealing with the aftermath of HMS Nottingham, which ran aground on rocks off Lord Howe Island.

He said passengers were now awaiting other flights.

He added: "There is no jumping up and down. People are resigned that it is something that happened and they have got to sort it out."

A call from the plane's pilot shortly after take-off prompted a full-scale emergency response, with some 25 ambulances sent to Sydney Airport.

BA said the plane's problem was a faulty warning light in the cockpit and a spokeswoman insisted that there had been no fire.

A spokeswoman later said that when the cargo hold was opened, it was found that the extinguishers had been activated.

'Smell of burning'

She said: "I can confirm there was the smell of burning and some smoke in the cabin as the passenger said."

She added that fire crews had said there was a small electrical wiring fire in the forward cargo hold.

"There's about a meter-square of fire damage," she said.