More than 250 people were killed when a military plane crashed in a field outside Algeria’s capital on Wednesday, state media said, in the country’s worst air disaster, Reuters reports.
Television footage showed crowds and emergency vehicles massing around the smoking and flaming wreckage near Boufarik airport southwest of Algiers.
A line of white body bags could be seen on the ground next to what media said was a Russian Ilyushin transport plane.
A total of 257 people were killed, most of them military, the defence ministry said. Ten crew and other people described as family members also died, and a number of survivors were being treated at an army hospital, the ministry added.
13:42 (GMT+4) At least 100 people were killed in a military plane crash in Algeria on Wednesday, Reuters with reference to the local media reported.
Local news website TSA said 105 people had died, quoting what it called provisional figures from the civil service.
A statement from the defense ministry confirming the crash gave no casualty toll.
12:38 (GMT+4) No less than 200 military servicemen might have died in a crash of an Ilyushin-76 military transport plane in Algeria. The plane crashed shortly after leaving the airdrome of a military base in Boufarik, 50 kilometers south of the capital Algiers, Al-Hadath TV said, TASS reports.
The plane instantly caught fire.
There have been no official statements from the Algerian authorities so far.