There were 110 soldiers on board.

The Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules crashed shortly after leaving Puerto Leguizamo, a remote location within the Amazon near the Peruvian border.

Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez said the plane was transporting troops from the armed forces when the incident occurred.

BlueRadio, quoting authorities, reported that 110 soldiers were on board the plane, which fell just three kilometers from an urban centre.

However, Sanchez warned that the exact <x0 number of victims and causes of the crash have not yet been determined”.

“I hope there will be no victims in this terrible accident that should never have happened”, President Gustavo Petro said in an X post, in which he criticised bureaucratic obstacles to delaying his plans to modernise the army.

“won't allow further delays; it is the lives of our young people who are at risk”, he said.

“If civil or military administrative officials are unable to face this challenge, they must be removed”, he added.

Hercules C-130s were launched for the first time in the 1950s, and Colombia bought its first models in the late 1960s.

Recently, it has modernised several older C-130s with newer models sent by the US under a law allowing the transfer of military equipment used or exceeded. /Telegraphy/