At least 34 people have died, and dozens of others have been wounded after a Colombian military plane with 125 people on board crashed after takeoff in the south of the country, officials said.

Minister of Defence Pedro Sanchez said on X that the “tragic accident” occurred in Puerto Leguizamo, a remote municipality in the Amazonian province of Putumayo, which borders the neighbouring South American countries of Peru and Ecuador.

Jhon Gabriel Molina, the governor of the Putumayo department, told local news outlet Caracol Noticias that 34 people were killed and 21 are still to be identified.

The air force said the Lockheed Martin-built Hercules C-130 had been transporting soldiers to another city in the Putumayo province.

Sanchez said the plane hit the ground just 1.5km (0.9 miles) away from where it took ⁠off. Ammunition being carried on board detonated as a result of a fire ⁠on the aircraft, he added.

There ⁠was no indication of an “attack by illegal actors”, Sanchez said.

Carlos Fernando Silva, the commander of Colombia’s Air Force, said two planes, with 74 beds, had been sent to the area to fly the injured back to hospitals in the capital, Bogota, and elsewhere.

Colombia acquired its first Hercules C-130 plane in the late 1960s and has more recently modernised some older C-130s with newer models sent from the United States.

Last month, another Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian Air Force crashed in the city of El Alto, barely missing a residential building.

More than 20 people were killed in that crash, and a further 30 were injured.