ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The Latest on the crash of a military plane in Algeria (all times local): 
 
 11:40 a.m. 
 
 Algerian emergency services say 181 people have been killed in a military plane crash and some survivors have been rescued. 
 
 Civil protection agency spokesman Farouk Achour told The Associated Press that the "provisional" death toll from the crash on Wednesday is 181. He said some passengers were "extracted with deep burns caused by the fuselage catching fire." 
 
 He said more than 300 emergency workers are working at the scene. 
 
 Algerian TV network Ennahar published images of body bags lined up in a field after the crash. 
 
 The crash occurred soon after takeoff from the Boufarik air base southwest of the capital Algiers. 
 
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 10 a.m. 
 
 Algerian state radio says that more than 100 people were killed in a military plane crash southwest of the capital. 
 
 The radio report said the cause of the crash Wednesday near an air base in Boufarik remains unclear. 
 
 Algerian state news agency said the Soviet-designed Il-76 plane was headed for Bechar in southwest Algeria. 
 
 Emergency services have been dispatched to the site of the crash. 
 
 Boufarik is located in northern Algeria some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, Algiers. 
 
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 9:40 a.m. 
 
 Algeria's state news agency says that a military plane has crashed near the military base of Boufarik in Algeria. 
 
 The Algerie Presse service agency said the Ilyushin-type plane was headed for Bechar in southwest Algeria. 
 
 Emergency services have been dispatched to the site of the crash. No death toll was immediately available. 
 
 Boufarik is located in northern Algeria, near the Mediterranean sea, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, Algiers. ||||| ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — At least 100 people were killed when a military plane carrying soldiers crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field in northern Algeria on Wednesday, officials said. 
 
 The cause of the crash was unclear, and an investigation has been opened, according to a Defense Ministry statement. 
 
 Local media reported that the plane crashed just after taking off. Emergency services converged on the area near the Boufarik military base after the crash. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke coming off the field, as well as ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles arriving at the site. 
 
 "There are more than 100 deaths. We can't say exact how many at this point," Mohammed Achour, chief spokesman for the civil protection agency, told The Associated Press. 
 
 He said the plane was carrying soldiers. The Defense Ministry did not provide a death toll but expressed condolences to the victims' families. 
 
 The flight had just taken off from Boufarik, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers, for a military base in Bechar in southwest Algeria, Achour said. It was scheduled to make a layover in Tindouf in southern Algeria, home to many refugees from the neighboring Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco. 
 
 The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane crashed in an agricultural zone with no residents, Achour said. 
 
 The Il-76 model has been in production since 1970s and has an overall good safety record. It is widely used for both commercial freight and military transport. 
 
 The Algerian military operates several of the planes. ||||| Ambulances transport the victims of a military plane crash in Oum El Bouaghi province, about 500 km (300 miles) from the capital Algiers, February 11, 2014. 
 
 A crashed military plane is pictured in Oum El Bouaghi province, about 500km (311 miles) from the capital Algiers, February 11, 2014. 
 
 A crashed military plane is pictured in Oum El Bouaghi province, about 500km (311 miles) from the capital Algiers, February 11, 2014. 
 
 OULED GACEM, Algeria A military transport plane carrying members of the Algerian armed forces and their relatives crashed into a mountain on Tuesday, killing 77 people, the worst air disaster in the North African country in a decade. 
 
 State television showed footage of the wreckage of the plane near the village of Ouled Gacem in eastern Algeria, smoke rising from the site and emergency crews scouring the forested area for survivors and bodies. 
 
 "I saw the military plane crashing, and it was cut into two pieces," Mohamed, a fireman told Reuters at Ouled Gacem, near the crash site in Oum El Bouaghi province, 500 km (300 miles) east of Algiers. 
 
 Colonel Lahmadi Bouguern told the APS state news agency that 99 passengers and four crew were on board the C-130 Hercules transport plane, which took off from the southern Tamanrasset province and was bound for Constantine. 
 
 The Defence Ministry said 77 people were killed and said the crash was likely due to bad weather. Initial reports in Algerian media had put the death toll at 103. 
 
 "The plane crashed into a mountain and exploded. Several bodies were burnt to ashes and could not be identified," one official told Reuters by telephone from the area. 
 
 State television said President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had declared three days of mourning from Wednesday. 
 
 The crash was the worst in Algeria since 2003 when an Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. 
 
 The Defence Ministry said it had set up a commission to investigate the crash and that army Chief of Staff and Deputy Defence Minister Ahmed Gaid Salah would go to the crash site. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers; writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
– Algeria's defense ministry says 257 people died when a military plane crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field in northern Algeria on Wednesday, per the AP. The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane had departed Boufarik air base, 20 miles southwest of the capital Algiers, for a military base in Bechar in southwest Algeria, a civil protection agency rep tells the AP. Another rep, who initially gave the "provisional" death toll as 181, says some passengers were "extracted with deep burns caused by the fuselage catching fire" and more than 300 emergency workers are working at the scene, per the AP. Footage showed thick black smoke coming off the field, as well as ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles at the site. The defense ministry says an investigation is underway.