A chopper carrying India’s military commander, General Bipin Rawat, crashed on Wednesday, killing at least seven people, according to the air force.
Rawat, India’s first chief of defense staff, was appointed by the government in 2019 and is close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the Indian Air Force, the 63-year-old was aboard a Russian-made Mi-17 chopper with his wife and 12 other passengers when it “met with an accident today in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.”
Rawat’s fate remained unknown at the time of the tragedy.
Footage from the event showed a swarm of people using water buckets to try to put out the fire, as soldiers took one of the passengers away on an improvised stretcher.
According to the Times of India, Tamil Nadu forests minister K. Ramachandran confirmed from the accident site that at least seven dead had been discovered.
A fire department spokesman in Coonoor told AFP that “several of the injured have been transported to the hospital.”
Rawat was on his way to the Defence Services Staff College from Coimbatore’s adjacent Sulur air force installation, and the helicopter was already descending.
Another fire official told AFP that it came down some 10 kilometers (six miles) from the nearest road, requiring emergency responders to hike to the accident scene.
