Published On : Fri, May 8th, 2015

Pak helicopter crashes into PoK school, kills Envoys of Norway, Philippines, 4 others; scores injured

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Pak helicopter crashes into PoK school

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The Ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines were among six people killed on Friday when a Pakistan helicopter carrying them crashed into a school in Pak-occupied Kashmir, the Army said in a tweet.

According to reports, the wives of the Ambassadors of Malaysia and Indonesia were also killed in the crash. Media said 11 foreigners and six Pakistanis were on board the MI-17, which crashed into a school in Gilgit and caught fire.

Officials warned the situation was “urgent” after the helicopter — one of three taking a delegation of foreign diplomats and their aides — crashed into the school with children inside.

The tweet said Ambassadors of Poland and the Netherlands were among the injured.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was travelling to the mountainous northern region of Gilgit on a separate aircraft to launch two tourism projects when the accident happened. He returned to Islamabad, his office said.

The convoy of three helicopters was carrying a delegation of foreign diplomats and their aides to Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan territory, which is part of the Pak-occupied Kashmir.

“It was a diplomatic trip with members of 37 countries in total,” said a passenger in one of the helicopters, who requested anonymity, adding that the school had caught fire after the crash.

“We have been told to send in as many ambulances as we can because the situation there is ‘urgent’,” said a senior official.

The injured were being airlifted to a military hospital in Gilgit, the region’s administrative capital,  added another senior local police official.

In the city of Gilgit, a hospital official said injured were being carried on stretchers to the emergency ward of the Combined Military Hospital.