At least six passengers were injured after jumping off an Indonesia plane, falsely believing their aircraft was on fire.

The incident started when passengers at Ngurah Rai international airport in southern Bali said they saw smoke coming from the plane, an official said.

“Some passengers saw smoke coming out from the plane's right side. They screamed and shouted that the plane was on fire,” said airline spokesman Eddy Haryanto.

They panicked and demanded the cabin crew open the emergency exit door. Some of them jumped off the plane before the slider came out, said Bambang Ervan, the spokesman for the ministry of transportation.

The six passengers were taken to a hospital and the plane was scheduled to be inspected.

There was no fire, it was only smoke from the exhaust and that's normal as the pilot had just started up the engines, Mr Haryanto said.

The Batavia Air Boeing 737 carrying 148 passengers and six crew was about to leave the terminal at Bali's main airport Thursday morning while en route to Surabaya city in East Java.