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A cargo plane carrying wads of cash crashed moments after landing – sparking chaos as people flocked to the scene to try and cram their pockets with scattered banknotes.
The Hercules C-130 aircraft was ferrying newly printed Bolivian currency from the country’s central bank when it ‘landed and veered off the runway’ at an airport near capital La Paz.
Police said the death toll has now risen to 20, while more than a dozen other people were injured.
Footage posted on social media showed bodies among the debris strewn across the highway where the plane finally came to a halt.
But it also captured scores of people rushing there to pick up the money that had billowed out when it crashed.
Some clips show authorities firing water and tear gas to fend off the mob of scavengers.
More than 500 soldiers and 100 police officers were drafted in, according to official reports.
Rescue teams, military personnel, and forensic officers work at the site of the crash (Picture: AFP via Getty)
The destroyed Bolivian Air Force Lockheed C-130 plane (FAB-81) in El Alto, near La Paz (Picture: AFP via Getty)
Police and military personnel burned the cash boxes in the presence of Central Bank President David Espinoza, who said the bills ‘have no legal value because they never entered circulation’, without clarifying what that meant.
Espinoza did not specify the amount of money being transported but he said the banknotes had arrived in Santa Cruz from abroad.
The El Alto International Airport was closed temporarily following the crash, national airline Boliviana de Aviacion said in a statement, adding the aircraft involved in the accident did not belong to its fleet.
Video broadcast on local media showed the aircraft was severely damaged, as were a number of vehicles along the avenue where the crash took place.
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