Two Malian soldiers were killed and more than 40 injured on Thursday when their military transporter crashed, the army said.

The accident in the capital Bamako "occurred due to a technical fault in the vehicle", said army spokesman Souleymane Maiga.

The army had originally reported "45 soldiers injured, one of them seriously" before later announcing that two of the casualties had died.

The deaths were confirmed by a medical source at the Gabriel Toure Hospital in Bamako.

The army said the truck was on the road leading from the north of the capital to the presidential palace, but gave no further details.

The under-funded, poorly-trained army is involved in a campaign against the remnants of rebel militias linked to Al-Qaeda who were ousted by a French-led international force after occupying northern Mali for ten months in 2012.

Five Malian soldiers were killed in April last year when their helicopter crashed in the central town of Sevare, with the cause of that accident also given as mechanical failure.