UPDATE: Another Plane‬ Crash‬ In Algeria‬ killing 77 people

An Algerian military transport plane has crashed into a mountain and exploded, killing 77 people. One person survived, the the government and military confirmed.

77 people killed in a military plane crash in Algeria on Tuesday, Feb. 11

Previously it had been reported by officials and local media that 103 died in the crash.

Most of the 78 people on board were military personnel and their family members, women and children among them. Rescuers recovered 77 bodies from the crash site. 

Credit: AFP

"We have found a survivor and the search continues," Colonel Farid Nechad said on Tuesday.

The lone survivor was taken to a hospital in Constantine where he is being treated for head injuries, reports said.

The Hercules C-130 crashed into a mountain in Oum al-Bouaghi province on its way to Constantine.

Bad weather conditions are believed to be the cause of the tragedy.

"I saw the military plane crashing, and it was cut into two pieces," a firefighter, Mohamed, told Reuters news agency at Ouled Gacem, near the crash site.

Onlookers watched rescue workers who flooded to the crash site despite the mountainous terrain and cold conditions

Some 250 emergency personnel have bee deployed to the scene despite the mountainous terrain and wintry weather conditions.

The recovery teams located one of the aircraft's two black box flight recorders, Algerian newspaper El Watan reported on its website.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika decreed three days of national mourning to begin on Wednesday, State TV said.

'Storm and snowfall'

The plane departed from the Sahara Desert garrison city of Tamanrasset, 1,500km south of Constantine. It made a stop in Ouargla.

Ambulances take the bodies of the crash victims from the crash site in Oum al-Bouaghi province

It crashed into Djebel Fertas mountain, some 380km east of the capital Algiers.

According to local radio station Ennahar – which has close links to the government and army – contact was lost with the military plane between Oum al-Bouaghi and Constantine as it was descending to land.

"The plane crashed into a mountain and exploded. Several bodies were burnt to ashes and could not be identified," an official told Reuters.

The defence ministry said in a statement that  "very bad weather conditions, involving a storm and heavy snowfall" should be blamed for the crash. The ministry said set up a commission to investigate the crash.

This is the worst plane crash in Algeria for more than 10 years and the third involving an Algerian military Hercules.

A crashed military plane is pictured in Oum El Bouaghi province, about 500km (311 miles) from the capital Algiers, February 11, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER

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