• Military plane crash in Colombia kills at least 66
• Dozens more hospitalized

A Colombian military transport plane carrying 128 people, mostly soldiers, crashed Monday in Puerto Leguízamo, leaving at least 66 dead and dozens injured.

General Hugo Alejandro López Barreto, head of the armed forces, confirmed the fatalities and said there is no evidence of an attack by illegal armed groups.

In a video posted online, Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros said the victims’ bodies were taken to the town morgue, while the town’s only two clinics treated the injured before they were transferred to larger hospitals.

Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez noted the plane was transporting troops to another city in Putumayo, an Amazonian province bordering Ecuador and Peru.

Media images showed thick black smoke rising from the crash site, with soldiers and local residents rushing to control the fire and evacuate the injured, some using motorcycles.

Colombia’s Air Force commander Carlos Fernando Silva said the cause of the crash is not yet clear, except that the plane encountered a problem and went down about two kilometers from the airport. Two aircraft equipped with 74 beds were sent to transport the wounded to hospitals in Bogotá and other cities.