TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian military transport plane has crashed into a residential area south of Tehran, state-run television reported.
Between 74 to 90 military personnel were believed to be aboard the transport when it went down Tuesday.
The official IRNA news agency reported that 10 bodies have been retrieved from the crash site.
The C-130 aircraft was headed for the port city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran when the pilot reported technical difficulties and was returning to base, according to Abdul Rahimi, a spokesman for Iran's civil aviation authority.
Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr told CNN there are unconfirmed reports that the aircraft was carrying military personnel and journalists.
The ISNA students' news agency reported the plane smashed into a 10-story building and burst into flames. Other Iranian media said the aircraft had hit an apartment block, Reuters reported.
"It is awful down here. I am suffocating," Red Crescent official Shahram Alamdari told Reuters by telephone from the scene, before hanging up.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
In Iran's last major military air disaster, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in the southeast of the country on February 19, 2003, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.
[img]http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/12/06/tehran.crash/story***an.map.jpg[/img]
Between 74 to 90 military personnel were believed to be aboard the transport when it went down Tuesday.
The official IRNA news agency reported that 10 bodies have been retrieved from the crash site.
The C-130 aircraft was headed for the port city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran when the pilot reported technical difficulties and was returning to base, according to Abdul Rahimi, a spokesman for Iran's civil aviation authority.
Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr told CNN there are unconfirmed reports that the aircraft was carrying military personnel and journalists.
The ISNA students' news agency reported the plane smashed into a 10-story building and burst into flames. Other Iranian media said the aircraft had hit an apartment block, Reuters reported.
"It is awful down here. I am suffocating," Red Crescent official Shahram Alamdari told Reuters by telephone from the scene, before hanging up.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
In Iran's last major military air disaster, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in the southeast of the country on February 19, 2003, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.
[img]http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/12/06/tehran.crash/story***an.map.jpg[/img]
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