JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian military transport plane carrying 13 crew and about 96 passengers has crashed in East Java, bursting into flames and killing at least two persons on the ground, officials said Wednesday.
The number of casualties on the plane was unclear, said air force spokesman Bambang Soelistyo, but a local official said the Hercules aircraft was badly damaged and had hit several houses on the ground. "About 15 metres (50 ft) of the tail is still intact, but the body to the front is broken and burnt," said Suwardi, a subdistrict head, in the district of Karas in Magetan.
"Earlier we heard blasts. But not anymore, now the plane is still on fire," added the official, who said airforce personnel were trying to evacuate victims but the site was difficult to reach because it was on the fringe of a rice field.
"I think there are still more people inside," he said, adding the plane had crashed at about 6:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. British time) around 5-7 km (3-4 miles) from the Iswahyudi air force base.
Footage on Metro TV showed debris scattered on the ground and black smoke rising, with the tail of the plane upside down.
People could be seen desperately trying to extinguish flames with buckets of water.
A doctor in a hospital close to the crash site said some injured people were being treated.
"We are treating four people, with brain concussion and bone fractures," Restu Kurnia Cahyani of the Dr. Soedono hospital in Madiun told Reuters.
A police officer near the site also said the number of casualties was unclear.
"It's clear there are victims but we don't know how many," said Warsono, a police officer near the site.
The location of the crash is near the border of the districts of Madiun and Magetan in East Java, about 150 km southwest of Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya.
Air force spokesman Soelistyo said the plane had been flying from Jakarta to the eastern part of Java island.
Indonesia has a poor record of air safety and maintenance and has suffered a string of accidents in recent years affecting both commercial and military aircraft.
(Reporting by Telly Nathalia, Olivia Rondonuwu, Tyagita Silka; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Jerry Norton)
