The death toll in the plane crash in central Indonesia on Tuesday has risen to 31, with dozens more injured, Indonesia's Metro TV reported.

The Lion Air plane which skidded off a rain-slicked runway around 6:14 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) at Adisumarno airport in the town of Solo, a tourist town in Central Java province.

The MD-82 plane had taken off from Jakarta with some 146 passengers and seven crew members aboard. It stopped in the East Java town of Surabaya before heading to Solo where it skidded off the runway and crashed into a public cemetery opposite the runway, a spokesman for Lion Air, Hasyim Arsal, was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Some 60 people were injured in the accident. They were taken to hospitals across Solo.

The cause of the accident is still unknown. But the casualty may be increasing since the airplane was almost totally damaged.

Made in 1982, the aircraft as one of the 10 planes owned by the Lion Air is still airworthy.

Most of the passengers are reportedly the guests of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization, the largest Muslim organization which claims to have 40 million followers across Indonesia. They were to attend the 31st NU congress which will open on Thursday in Boyolali, Surakarta, Central Java.