An emergency services helicopter crashed today near an elementary school in a residential district of the southern South Korean city of Gwangju, killing at least two people on board, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties on the ground, with the fire department helicopter missing nearby apartment blocks as it crashed shortly before 0730 IST. Television footage showed the wreckage burning by the side of a main road.

“Two bodies have been recovered from inside the aircraft,” a local police official told AFP by telephone.

The Yonhap news agency reported that three people had been killed.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

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