At least 100 people were killed on Wednesday when a military plane crashed in northern Algeria. Local news website TSA said 105 people had died, quoting what it called provisional figures from the civil service. The Soviet-designed Ilyushin-76 military transport plane crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field near the Boufarik military base. The cause of the crash was unclear, and an investigation has been opened, according to a Defense Ministry statement. "There are more than 100 deaths. We cant 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. Hundreds of ambulances and dozens of fire trucks with their sirens wailing rushed to the scene. 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 aircraft is capable of carrying around 120 passengers, said a military source, who did not want to be named. Television footage showed black smoke billowing near a motorway and a crowd of security officials and others standing in a field next to the crash site. The tail fin of a plane could be seen above olive trees, with smoke and flames rising from the wreckage.