LONDON, Nov 30:
Eight persons were killed and over 30 injured when a police helicopter crashed into a busy pub in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
The Eurocopter EC135 T2 helicopter, with two police officers and a civilian pilot on board, came down late last night on Clutha Vaults pub on the bank of the River Clyde, which was packed with more than 100 people listening to a performing band.
“There were three people on board the helicopter, two police officers and a civilian pilot, and on a busy Friday night, there were a number of customers in the bar,” said Rose Fitzpatrick, deputy chief constable, Police Scotland.
“A full investigation is now under way. However, at this early stage it is too early to provide details on why the helicopter came down,” she added.
Fourteen people were being treated for “very serious injuries” in hospitals across Glasgow. Police said a total of 32 people, with “multiple types of injury”, had so far been taken to hospitals.
Eyewitnesses inside the bar said that in the moments after the helicopter came through the roof there was no explosion.
Grace MacLean, who was inside the pub, told the BBC, “It was fairly busy. We were having a nice time and then there was just a whoosh noise. There was no bang, no explosion. We were all joking that the band had caused the roof to come down. They carried on playing at first.”
Investigators from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) arrived on the scene this morning to piece together what had happened.
Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, said on Twitter: “Absolutely awful news about a helicopter crashing into the Clutha. All my thoughts are with everyone involved and the emergency services.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted, “My thoughts are with everyone affected by the helicopter crash in Glasgow – and the emergency services working tonight.”
Jim Murphy, a Labour MP who was driving by and stopped to help, said members of the public formed a human chain to get people out of the building.
“What I saw was a pile of people clambering out of the pub, dust everywhere. People were covered in multiple injuries,” he said.
Gordon Smart, editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper’s Scottish edition, saw the crash from a multi-storey car park nearby.
“The thing that was disturbing and shocking was there was no explosion. I couldn’t understand why a helicopter would fall from that height and not explode. To see the angle, the speed and the trajectory of the fall, it was a horrific sight,” he said.
Members of Esperanza, the band playing at the time, all escaped from the wreckage unharmed.
Police helicopters in Glasgow use a small heliport further down the Clyde in Finnieston, around a mile west of the scene of the crash.
One witness who lives in the Gorbals area of the city, on the opposite bank, said he had heard a helicopter flying low for some time before the crash.
Today is Scotland’s National Day, referred to as St Andrew’s Day in honour of the region’s patron saint. A number of events linked to the annual feast day have been cancelled following the crash. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel