Ghana’s defence and environment ministers are among eight killed when a military helicopter crashed, the government has said.
The West African country’s military said the helicopter took off in the morning from the capital Accra and was heading northwest into the interior to the town of Obuasi when it went off the radar.
Footage of the crash site shows debris on fire in a forest as people circle around to help.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The military said an investigation was under way.
Defence minister Edward Omane Boamah and environment minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were killed, along with the vice-chair of the National Democratic Congress ruling party, a top national security adviser and the helicopter’s three crew members.
Read more from Sky News:
Birmingham Airport runway shut after ‘aircraft incident’
Five soldiers injured in shooting at US Army base
State media said the aircraft was a Z-9 helicopter, which is often used for transport and medical evacuation.
It was one of the worst air disasters in Ghana in more than a decade.
A service helicopter crashed off the coast in May 2014 and killed at least three people.
And in 2012 a cargo plane overran the runway in Accra and crashed into a bus full of passengers, killing at least 10 people.
