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(Recast) 7 killed in glacier sight-seeing helicopter crash in New Zealand

Xinhua, November 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Seven people including the pilot were killed in a helicopter crash in a popular glacier sight-seeing valley Saturday morning in the south island of New Zealand, police said.

Police Inspector for west coast of the south island John Canning told Stuff news website that the helicopter was in a crevasse 762 m up the valley near Fox Glacier. Debris was scattered hundreds of meters around the crash site.

Earlier, four choppers responded to the crash site, winching down a paramedic and a rescuer to the scene.

Emergency services said weather conditions were too bad for recovering the bodies while a recovery effort and scene examination was "likely to take some days," according to the police.

It was reported the company involved was called Alpine Adventures, one of a few helicopter operators in the heavily crevassed area with the country's two major glaciers located not far from each other. Endit