Paraguay's agriculture minister and a deputy minister were among four people killed in an airplane crash, rescuers said Thursday.
The four were traveling in a light aircraft that crashed Wednesday evening near the Argentine border.The dead were identified as agriculture minister Luis Gneiting, deputy livestock minister Vicente Ramirez, civil servant Luis Charotti and pilot Gerardo Lopez.
Gneiting was returning to the capital Asuncion, 300 kilometers away, after visiting his terminally ill mother, who died on Thursday just hours after her son.
The twin-engine plane had taken off from the southern fishing town of Ayolas on Wednesday afternoon but crashed soon afterward, just eight kilometers from the airport.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
