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1st LD-Writethru: At least 4 police officers injured in Kenya plane crash

Xinhua, September 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

At least four police officers were injured after a police aircraft crashed in the capital Nairobi on Thursday.

Nairobi County police commander Japheth Koome confirmed the incident at Nairobi's sprawling Mathare slums after a brand new Agusta Westland 139 police helicopter crashed.

Koome said the chopper was overflying Mathare slums when it crashed within the National Youth Service field at about 4:00 p.m. local time.

The chopper, which was unveiled in April, was badly damaged. Police said the four officers on board were on routine patrols in the city when the incident happened and they were rushed to hospital.

Those at the scene said the pilot tried to make a hard landing on the field when it went down headfirst before landing on its back, badly damaging it.

The chopper had a capacity of 15 passengers.

This was the second police chopper to crash within less than a month. A Bell type chopper crashed within Nairobi's Wilson Airport on Aug. 22, injuring two.

Also on Thursday, a woman was killed and four others injured when a light aircraft burst into flames less than five minutes after taking off at the Naivasha airstrip, some 100km northwest of Nairobi. Endit