A British Boeing 757 was forced to land at the Nouakchott international airport in Mauritania, after one of its engines caught fire.

The pilot of the plane, which was carrying 108 passengers, noticed that one of the plane's engines had caught fire and immediately contacted the airport's control tower to allow him to land in the Mauritanian capital Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

The plane, coming from Freetown in Sierra Leone, was on its way to London.

There were no casualties and the fire was put off by the airport's firefighters.