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Scores of Colombian soldiers are feared dead after a military transport plane crashed on takeoff in the south of the country.
The defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the accident happened as the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region, on the border with Peru, as it transported troops from the armed forces.
Maj Gen Carlos Fernando Silva, the chief of the Colombian air force, said the aircraft was carrying 11 air force members and 114 soldiers. He said that 48 injured people had been rescued but gave no figure for survivors or fatalities.
Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, posted that there was at least one confirmed death, 77 people in hospital and “43 people whose status is to be established”.
The governor of the department of Putumayo, Jhon Gabriel Molina Acosta, told the newspaper El Tiempo that there were eight deaths, and at least 15 of those hospitalised were in a serious condition.
The mayor of Puerto Leguízamo, Emilio Augusto, told Radio Caracol that “medical capacity has been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the emergency”, and requested immediate support from the national and departmental governments to evacuate the injured.
Petro described the crash as a “horrific accident that should never have happened”.
In a lengthy post, apparently attempting to pre-empt potential criticism, Petro said he had been trying to renew the military fleet for years but has been hindered by “bureaucratic difficulties”.
“If the civil or military administrative officials are not up to this challenge, they must be removed,” said Petro.
The leading candidates for the Colombian presidency – the first round of which will take place in late May, when Petro will not run as there is no re-election – also posted messages mourning the tragedy and calling for investigations into its causes.
Images shared online by local media outlets show a black cloud of smoke rising from a field where the plane crashed, a truck with soldiers rushing to the site and civilians trying to extinguish the fire.
Sánchez did not specify the number of troops who were onboard the Hercules C-130. He said rescue teams had been sent to the site of the crash and that the cause of the accident still had not been determined.
“This event is profoundly painful for the country,” Sánchez wrote. “We hope that our prayers can help to relieve some of the pain.”
The US defence company Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the end of February, another Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian air force crashed in the populous city of El Alto, barely missing a residential block, killing more than 20 people and injuring another 30.
