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. The cause of the crash was unclear, and an investigation has been opened, according to a Defense Ministry statement. The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane crashed in an agricultural zone with no residents, Achour said. Emergency services converged on the area near the Boufarik military base after the crash. 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. The Defense Ministry did not provide a death toll but expressed condolences to the victims' families.
– 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.