78 dead in plane crash

Seventy-eight people were killed and three injured on Tuesday when a Moroccan military plane slammed into a mountainside in bad weather in the country's south, the Moroccan military said.

The Hercules C-130 aircraft crashed into a mountain 10 kilometres (six miles) northeast of Guelmim, located about 830 kilometres (215 miles) south of Rabat, an army statement said.

"There are 78 dead and three seriously injured", it said.

The plane was flying from the southern city of Agadir to Laayoune in the Western Sahara with "six crew, 60 soldiers and 12 civilians", it added.

The statement blamed the accident on "bad weather conditions".

"This is a military plane that is used for the transport of troops, but also of their families. It is widely used in the Sahara," an interior ministry official added.

"Above all, it was the fog and bad weather conditions that are believed to be behind this accident. But for the moment, we don't have enough information," the source said.

First Published: Jul 26, 2011 18:42 IST