A military plane has crashed on to a busy road in the city of El Alto, near Bolivia’s capital La Paz, killing at least 15 people and injuring at least 30 others, officials say.Defence minister Marcelo Salinas says the Bolivian Air Force Hercules C-130 aircraft was transporting new banknotes from the city of Santa Cruz to the country’s interior when it “landed and veered off the runway” before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames that engulfed the plane.He says the cause of the crash is being investigated.Local fire chief Pavel Tovar did not clarify if the victims were in the plane or in cars on the highway during the crash, while Bolivian Air Force General Sergio Lora added that two of the plane’s six crew members had not been found as of late Friday.Video broadcast on local media showed the aircraft was severely damaged, as were several vehicles along the road where the crash took place.Tovar says at least 15 vehicles were damaged.Reuters reports that social media footage showed chaotic scenes of people appearing to pick up money that lay strewn on the ground following the crash.
Official reports say more than 500 soldiers and 100 police officers worked to disperse the mob, including using water hoses to ward people off.Tovar adds that the hundreds of people trying to collect the spilled bills were hindering rescue efforts.Bolivian Central Bank president David Espinoza says the bills “have no legal value because they never entered circulation.”He did not specify how much money was being transported, but said the banknotes had arrived from abroad.Police and military personnel burned the remaining cash boxes after the country’s defence ministry warned that collecting or using the new banknotes would constitute a crime.Authorities temporarily suspended all flights to and from the terminal, but have since resumed.