BELGRADE, Serbia 

Serbia’s president said Monday that the crash over the weekend of a Ukrainian cargo plane in northern Greece was a tragic accident but it was not carrying dangerous materials. 

Aleksandar Vucic was speaking at a press conference in the capital Belgrade about the Antonov An-12 cargo aircraft which took off from Serbia on Saturday evening and crashed in a field near the city of Kavala, killing all eight Ukrainian crew members onboard.

"Unfortunately, it was a tragic accident, but there were no dangerous materials (on the plane). There were practice and lighting mines,'' said Vucic.

The plane took off from Serbia and was heading to Bangladesh, said Serbian authorities.

Vucic said a Ukrainian company’s aircraft was chosen for transporting ammunition from Serbia to Bangladesh because of sanctions against Russian and Belarusian carriers.

He said it was also chosen because only the Ukrainians have large four-engine aircraft capable of carrying big loads and weapons.

The Antonov cargo plane, owned by the Ukrainian company Meridian Ltd., took off from Nis airport in southern Serbia at 8:40 pm (1840GMT) and was transporting around 11 tons of mines from Valir, a private Serbian company, to the Ministry of Defense of Bangladesh, Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said in a press conference.

Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said the plane had all the proper permits in accordance with international regulations, denying media reports that weapons were being transported from Serbia to Ukraine on the flight.

Local residents reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions hours after the crash.

Greek authorities said the pilot requested permission to make an emergency landing because of engine failure but the plane did not manage to reach the airport. A fire broke out in one of the plane’s engines while in flight, which is believed to have caused the crash, said officials.

The plane crashed in farmland between two villages.