BOGOTA — A military transport plane with 128 people on board, mostly soldiers, crashed shortly after taking off on Monday in Puerto Leguizamo, Colombia, killing at least 66 people and leaving dozens injured, the head of the country's armed forces said.

General Hugo Alejandro Lopez Barreto said four military personnel were still missing.

"Sadly, as a consequence of this tragic accident, 66 of our military elements died," he said. "At the moment, we have no information or indications that it was an attack by an illegal armed group."

In a video posted on social media, Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros said the bodies of the victims were taken to a morgue in the town, and that the only two clinics in the town treated the injured before they were flown to bigger cities. Puerto Leguizamo is located in Putumayo, an Amazonian province that borders Ecuador and Peru.

"I want to thank the people of Puerto Leguizamo who came out to help the victims of this accident," Claros told television station RCN.

Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that the plane was transporting troops to another city in Putumayo.

Images shared online by Colombian media outlets showed a black cloud of smoke rising from a field where the plane crashed and a truck with soldiers rushing to the site.

The airplane had 128 people on board — 115 from the Army, 11 crew members and 2 from the National Police.

Agencies via Xinhua