At least two dead in Russia helicopter crash: reports

At least two people were killed in Russia’s Far North on Sunday when a helicopter made an unscheduled emergency landing, officials said.

A distress signal had already been received from the Eurocopter-120 before it made the hard landing on the north of the Kola peninsula in the Murmansk region.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement that two people were confirmed dead and a probe had been opened into the accident, without giving further details.

However unconfirmed reports said three people were killed and they were likely to be people who were crushed to death on the ground rather than passengers on the helicopter.

“After take-off, the helicopter tilted and fell onto its side. Three people who were on the ground at the time died of their injuries,” a source in Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia told the RIA Novosti news agency.