Libyan military plane crashes in Tunisia, 11 killed - officials

21/02/2014 - 9:02

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Libyan military plane carrying medical patients crashed early on Friday near Tunisia's capital, killing all 11 crew and passengers on board after an engine failure, Tunisian authorities said.

The Antonov aircraft went down after the pilot tried to land in farmland near Grombalia town south of Tunis, the TAP state news agency reported.

Six crew members as well as the patients and their companions died, a spokesman for Tunisia's defence ministry said. Libyans often travel to Tunisia for medical treatment.

It was the second crash involving a military plane in North Africa in two weeks. An Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in bad weather on February 11, killing 77 people, in the country's worst air disaster in a decade.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara, writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Andrew Heavens)