At least 257 people, mostly soldiers and members of their families, were killed in an Algerian military plane crash on Wednesday, the defence ministry said.

The II-76 crashed shortly after take-off from the Boufarik airbase, about 25 kilometres southwest of the capital Algiers.

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The dead include the plane’s 10 crew and 247 passengers, most of the members of the armed forces, the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, “There are more than 100 deaths. We can’t say exactly how many at this point,” Mohammed Achour, chief spokesman for the civil protection agency said.

He said the plane was carrying soldiers. The Defense Ministry did not provide a death toll but expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

The flight had just taken off from Boufarik, about 30 kilometres southwest of the capital Algiers, for a military base in Bechar in southwest Algeria, Achour said.

It was scheduled to make a layover in Tindouf in southern Algeria, home to many refugees from neighbouring Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco.

The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane crashed in an agricultural zone with no residents, Achour said.