In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, an army helicopter carrying India’s top military commander and his family crashed.
General Bipin Rawat, the Chief of Defence Staff, was on board a Mi-17V5 helicopter when it crashed near Coonoor. It was unclear whether Gen Rawat and his family were safe. According to reports, there were 14 passengers on board.
Five individuals had died, according to a state government minister, and two others were in critical condition. The rescue operation was ongoing, according to Tamil Nadu Forest Minister K Ramachandran, and the injured, some of whom had severe burns, had been transferred to the hospital.
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Images from the crash site showed strong plumes of smoke billowing from the mangled wreckage of the chopper, as well as locals attempting to extinguish the blaze.
The helicopter had just taken off from the army base in Sulur with Gen Rawat and his wife among those on board. It was headed for Wellington town, less than 100km (62 miles) away.
The Indian Air Force said it had ordered an investigation into the accident. Gen Rawat, 63, was appointed India’s first-ever Chief of Defence Staff in January 2019.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is monitoring the situation and a meeting of senior officials is underway, news agency ANI reported.
Mr Singh has briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the crash and is due to address the parliament shortly, where he is expected to provide more details, the news agency added.
Although the Mi-17V5 is among the most sophisticated military transport helicopters, India’s ageing air force fleet is often blamed for a high number of crashes.
In 2017, seven military personnel were killed in a crash in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. The helicopter was on a training sortie.
A year before that, another of the helicopters had crashed immediately after take-off during a military drill in the northern state of Uttarakhand. No casualties were reported then.