The plane took off from a military base in Kayseri on a training flight and later crashed for as yet unknown reasons, the ministry said.

Images on Turkish media showed black smoke billowing from a charred, half destroyed carcass of a plane in an agricultural field.

Firefighters, rescuers and police were working at the site, according to images by the state Anadalu agency.

"I express my condolences to our martyrs' families, to our heroic army and to our nation," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

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