Emergency services called to incident near Beccles and crash site cordoned off
Four people are feared dead in a helicopter crash in Norfolk, police have said.
Emergency services were called to the incident at the village of Gillingham, near Beccles and Lowestoft, at about 7.30pm on Thursday night. Police confirmed that the aircraft was civilian rather than military after discovering the crash site. They said the area of the crash site has been cordoned off.
One Twitter user said that the helicopter came down near his house, which he wrote was near the woodland leading to the small village of Gillingham.
It is not yet known what type of helicopter it is or how many passengers were on board.
A spokesman for East of England Ambulance Service said: "We got called to reports of a helicopter crash near Beccles and we sent several resources to the scene, including doctors."
It is not yet known whether fog, which beset much of England earlier in the day, played a factor in the crash, although the visibility was reported to be poor in the area on Thursday night.
The site is 45 miles from the spot where four crew members died when a US military helicopter crashed in January on a training mission in a nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea.
All four American crew members were killed in the crash. Residents described hearing a "heavy and very unusual" noise from the helicopter seconds before the crash.
The aircraft was carrying munitions at the time of the crash and police subsequently cordoned off the area as they investigated the nature of the weaponry, which was later found to be bullets.
More details soon ... Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
Four people are feared dead in a helicopter crash in Norfolk, police have said.
Emergency services were called to the incident at the village of Gillingham, near Beccles and Lowestoft, at about 7.30pm on Thursday night. Police confirmed that the aircraft was civilian rather than military after discovering the crash site. They said the area of the crash site has been cordoned off.
One Twitter user said that the helicopter came down near his house, which he wrote was near the woodland leading to the small village of Gillingham.
It is not yet known what type of helicopter it is or how many passengers were on board.
A spokesman for East of England Ambulance Service said: "We got called to reports of a helicopter crash near Beccles and we sent several resources to the scene, including doctors."
It is not yet known whether fog, which beset much of England earlier in the day, played a factor in the crash, although the visibility was reported to be poor in the area on Thursday night.
The site is 45 miles from the spot where four crew members died when a US military helicopter crashed in January on a training mission in a nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea.
All four American crew members were killed in the crash. Residents described hearing a "heavy and very unusual" noise from the helicopter seconds before the crash.
The aircraft was carrying munitions at the time of the crash and police subsequently cordoned off the area as they investigated the nature of the weaponry, which was later found to be bullets.
More details soon ... Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.