A Moroccan military transport aircraft crashed on Tuesday in the south of the country, the official MAP news agency said.

MAP did not say how many passenger were on board the C-130 Hercules aircraft but said the accident took place in a mountainous area near Guelmim, just north of the disputed Western Sahara territory.

Citing unnamed sources, independent news portal Lakome.com said at least 20 of the 70 passengers aboard the plane had died.

Another website, Goud.ma, reported that as many as 26 of 70 passengers who were aboard the aircraft had died.

Morocco's most recent plane crash was in 1994 when all 44 passengers and crew members aboard a Royal Air Maroc aircraft died in a crash near the southwestern city of Agadir.

Reuters