This Sept. 6, 2016, photo released by the U.S. Marine Corps shows Marines with the 2nd Amphibious Assault Battalion aboard AAV-7 Amphibious Assault Vehicles during an exercise on the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tenn. The Marine Corps said Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017 that an AAV-7 similar to this one caught fire during a training exercise at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and15 Marines were taken to area hospitals, including several with serious injuries. (Lance Cpl. Jack A. E. Rigsby/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)

SAN DIEGO - In stories Sept. 14 and Sept. 13 about a training accident at a California Marine Corps base, The Associated Press reported erroneously the location of the vehicle when it caught fire. A Marine spokesman said it was inland and not on a beach at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego.

A corrected version of the story is below:

15 injured when vehicle ignites on California Marine base

Fourteen Marines and one Navy sailor were hospitalized after their amphibious vehicle caught fire during a training exercise at a military base.

By JULIE WATSON

Associated Press

Fourteen Marines and one Navy sailor were hospitalized after their amphibious vehicle caught fire during a training exercise at a military base.

Three of the injured were listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon at the Burn Center at the University of California San Diego Health and five were in serious condition, the Marine Corps said in a statement. Four other Marines were rushed to the University of California Irvine Medical Center in nearby Orange County, including two in critical condition there.

Another Marine at a hospital in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla was in stable condition and two others were treated for minor injuries at a Navy hospital at Camp Pendleton.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Marines and their families affected by this incident," a Marine Corps statement said.

The Marines from the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion were conducting a combat readiness evaluation as part of their battalion training at about 9:30 a.m. at an inland area of Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base, which abuts the Pacific coast north of San Diego, when the amphibious vehicle ignited, said Marine 1st Lt. Paul Gainey.

The amphibious vehicle got stuck and then caught fire as the Marines were trying to free it, said a defence who spoke anonymously because the official was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly,

The command is investigating the cause of the incident. Gainey said he had no further information to release.

The armoured vehicle is used to carry Marines and their equipment from Navy ships onto land. It resembles a tank and travels through water before coming ashore. It has been used in the Marine Corps since the 1970s.

In 2013, a 21-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine died and four others were injured when ordnance ignited an amphibious assault vehicle during a training exercise at Marine Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, in the California desert.

The Marine Corps has since developed a safer mine clearing system for its amphibious assault vehicles.

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Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017