"Emergency response teams have been activated and all passengers and crew have been safely evacuated," a statement said.
"Operations at DXB have been affected with all departing flights delayed until further notice."
A spokesman later said that all arrivals and departures at the airport had been suspended, with an updated to come at 5pm UAE time.
Emirates also confirmed that everyone onboard was safe. "We can confirm that there are no fatalities among our passengers and crew. All passengers and crew are accounted for and safe," it said.
Emirates added that it is expecting a 4-hour network-wide delay but that later became an 8-hour delay.
All departure flights from Dubai International Airport have been delayed until further notice. Some inbound flights are being diverted to other regional airports. The Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre said it had implemented an contingency plan to manage air traffic.
Passengers at the airport reported on social media that the flight, which was carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew, landed without landing gear and caught fire. An explosion can be seen aboard the flight in some footage.
Emirates Airline confirmed "an incident" happened at 12.45pm via Twitter. It later referred to it as an "operational incident".
The airline then said in a statement: "Emirates can confirm that flight EK521 travelling from Trivandrum International Airport in Thiruvananthapuram, India, to Dubai has been involved in an accident at Dubai International Airport.
"Our main priority at this time is the safety and wellbeing of all involved and full co-operation is being extended to the authorities and emergency services managing the situation.
"We will update the Emirates website and social media channels as more information becomes available."
However, the emirates.com website was down for a time on Wednesday afternoon, though its mobile site remained operational.
Ismail Abdel Wahed, executive director of Air Accident Investigations at the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority, told The National that investigators were on their way to the scene.
"The air accident investigators will examine the scene and collect the necessary information including the black box data as well as conduct interviews with those involved," he said.
"Once we have been given the all-clear from the emergency services that the aircraft fire has been extinguished we will make arrangements for it to be removed from the scene to allow us to continue our investigations.
"It’s currently blocking the runway so it will have to be removed."
Flightradar24, a flight monitoring site, said that the plane was a Boeing 777 and the flight was EK521, from Thiruvananthapuram, India.
@BBCBreaking @BBC_HaveYourSay just witnessed a crash at Dubai airport.. I have more footage pic.twitter.com/WeOb4UOONS
— Edmund Basil (@EdmundBasil) 3 August 2016
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