MANILA - FAULTY brakes forced an airplane carrying 32 passengers to swerve on landing at Manila's domestic airport on Sunday, triggering an emergency evacuation of passengers but injuring no one, officials said.

The jet propeller plane belonging to domestic low-cost carrier SEAIR, arriving from Caticlan in the central Philippines, lost control as it landed and swerved towards a grassy layby beside the runway at around 1755 (0955 GMT).

'We looked through binoculars and saw one of the doors swing open and people scrambling out of the airplane. There was smoke coming from it,' said air traffic controller Ildefonso Torres.

The police said faulty brakes on the Dornier 328 aircraft caused the swerve.

A bus ferried the passengers and three crew away unharmed. -- REUTERS