AT least 20 people have been killed and more than 30 injured after a Bolivian Air Force Hercules transport plane, carrying a cargo of newly printed banknotes, crashed onto a busy highway while attempting to land in bad weather near the capital, La Paz.
The military plane was attempting to land on Friday evening at El Alto International Airport when it skidded off the runway and ploughed into a nearby road, local authorities said.
“There are about 20, maybe a few more,” Police Colonel Rene Tambo, head of the police homicide division in El Alto, said of the number of people killed.
Defence Minister Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 “landed and veered off the runway” and came to a stop in a field.
Firefighters responding to the crash successfully extinguished a fire that broke out, the minister said, noting that the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
“A heavy hailstorm” was falling and “there was lightning” when the plane went down, Cristina Choque, a 60-year-old vendor whose car was struck by plane wreckage, told the AFP news agency.
Footage shared on social media showed chaotic scenes as crowds gathered at the crash site.
Some people appeared to collect banknotes scattered among debris from the aircraft, the wrecked vehicles and the bodies of victims.
Authorities used water hoses and tear gas to push back onlookers and looters.
The Ministry of Defence, in a statement, said later that “the money transported in the crashed aircraft has no official serial number… therefore it has no legal or purchasing power”.
The ministry also warned that the “collection, possession, or use” of the money “constitutes a crime”.
Bolivian Air Force General Sergio Lora said that two of the six crew members of the aircraft were still unaccounted for.
The central bank was expected to brief reporters later on Friday regarding the stricken plane’s cargo.
Bolivia’s La Paz, situated at an altitude of 3,650 metres (11,975 feet) and surrounded by Andean mountain peaks, is the highest administrative capital in the world.