A Colombian Air Force plane has crashed in the south of the country, leaving at least eight people dead.
Air force commander Carlos Fernando Silva Rueda said 114 army personnel were on board, as well as 11 crew. He said 48 people were pulled from the plane wreckage with injuries and were in hospital.
Regional governor Jhon Gabriel Molina later said eight people were confirmed dead and more than 80 injured in Monday’s incident.
The plane, a US-made C-130 Hercules used for transporting troops, came down near the town of Puerto Leguízamo, in Putumayo province.
Emergency workers sent to the area were seen searching through the wreckage for survivors.
The cause of the crash is being investigated.
Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez said the plane had suffered “a tragic accident while it was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, transporting troops of our security forces”.
He described the incident near the border with Peru as “deeply sad for the country”.
Images shared by local media show a plume of smoke rising from the site and trucks carrying soldiers heading to the area.
Footage on local news sites also appears to show locals transporting what seem to be injured soldiers from the accident site to hospitals on the back of small motorbikes.
President Gustavo Petro wrote on X that “this horrendous accident … should not have happened”.
In the lengthy post, he also blamed “bureaucratic problems” for holding up his plans to modernise the armed forces’ equipment and their aircraft.
“I will allow no further delays, the lives of our young people are at stake,” he wrote, without clarifying what may have caused the accident.
Last month, a Bolivian Air Force C-130 Hercules transporting banknotes crashed in the west of the country, killing at least 20 people.
