257 die as military plane crashes in flames on take-off

MORE than 250 people, including refugees, were killed yesterday when the military plane they were on crashed near Algeria’s capital.

Witnesses said that they had seen one of its wings on fire shortly after the Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane took off from Boufarik aiport, south-west of Algiers, and that the pilot had steered the stricken plane away from a road.

It had been bound for Tindouf, on the border with Western Sahara, and 26 of the dead had been members of the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed group fighting for the independence of Western Sahara, a territory also claimed by Morocco.

In all 257 people were confirmed dead, including 10 crew members and other people described as their family.

A number of survivors were being treated at an army hospital, the Algerian defence ministry said.