️ At least 20 people have died and dozens were injured after a military cargo plane carrying banknotes crashed while landing near Bolivia’s capital on Friday, damaging about a dozen vehicles on a highway and scattering bills on the ground.

️ Footage from local media showed people rushing to collect banknotes while police in riot gear tried to disperse them using teargas. Authorities were later seen setting the money alight in a bonfire at the crash site.

️ The defence ministry said in a statement that “the money transported in the crashed aircraft has no official serial number … therefore it has no legal or purchasing power.” It added that “its collection, possession, or use constitutes a crime.”

️ The aircraft, a C-130 Hercules transport plane, skidded off the runway as it landed at El Alto international airport and veered along an avenue before coming to rest in a field, local media footage showed.

️ It was not immediately known what caused the crash, but witnesses told Agence France-Presse that the weather had been treacherous. Cristina Choque, a 60-year-old vendor whose car was struck by aircraft wreckage, described lightning and a heavy hailstorm at the time the plane landed.

️ The Ministry of Defence said it would launch an investigation into the crash. Police and fire department officials confirmed the death toll was around 20. Bolivia’s health ministry reported at least 28 people were injured.

️ The plane, which belongs to the Bolivian air force, was transporting new banknotes from the central bank to other cities, and a large number of bills scattered on the ground at the crash site.

️ The Bolivian Air Navigation and Airports authority (NAABOL) said in a statement that the C-130 departed from the eastern city of Santa Cruz and crashed while landing at the international airport in La Paz, which suspended its operations.

️ Bolivian air force Gen. Sergio Lora said two of the plane’s six crew members had not been found as of late Friday.

Source: www.theguardian.com