A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during take-off, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during take-off at DEN at approximately 11.19pm on Friday,” the airport’s official X account wrote.

A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, died.

They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway”.