Helicopter carrying officials in Mexico assessing the damage caused by a recent earthquake crashed and killed about 13 persons. Mexico’s interior minister and the governor of the south-west Oaxaca state were on board, but neither was hurt.
The aircraft’s pilot lost control as it was coming in to land, Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said.
The 7.2-magnitude quake’s epicentre was in Oaxaca but it shook buildings and causing after shocks in Mexico City, 350km (217 miles) away. No casualties were recorded in the quake itself.
Reports indicate that the helicopter had crashed on top of two vans in a field while trying to land not far from the epicentre, near the town of Pinotepa de Don Luis.
Twelve people – five women, four men and three children – were killed at the scene and another died in hospital later after suffering from severe wounds.
