Twenty-six people have been killed after a bus carrying tourists crashed and caught fire in Taiwan.

The coach was carrying 24 tourists on an eight-day tour organised by a travel agency in China's northeastern province of Liaoning, authorities said in a statement.

The driver and the tour guide, both from Taiwan, were also killed.

"The fire moved very fast. All 26 died," Lu Jui-yao, an official with the National Highway Police Bureau, told reporters.

The coach was travelling to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport when it crashed into a roadside barrier.

The official Central News Agency says the accident took place shortly after noon on the No. 2 national highway in Taoyuan county, south of the capital, Taipei.

Taiwan's cabinet spokesman, Tung Chen-yuan, said government officials dealing with tourism and China affairs had reached out to their mainland counterparts and that they would help arrange for relatives of the victims to come to Taiwan.

Photos from the scene showed flames and thick black smoke pouring from the cab of the bus.