Helicopter Crash in London

[Dirk Gently]

I'm just hearing reports of a helicopter crash in Vauvhall, London.

Early BBC report here.

Almost certainly the pilot will have died but there are early reports of cars being involved.

Apparently the helicopter hit a crane on a new high rise & then plummeted to the ground.

[Si Hunt]

There's obviously not a lot to report on yet:

Commuter Sherna Noah described seeing a "large plume of dark grey smoke" as she crossed Battersea Bridge at about 08:00 GMT.

She said: "I was coming across the bridge and basically I could see a few cyclists on the bridge looking towards the water. I looked over to see what they were looking at and could see a pall of grey smoke coming from the south side.

"You could see a large plume of dark grey smoke."

So there was a plume of smoke?

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

There's plenty of pictures & some video on various sites, what with modern social media being what it is.

Welcome to the modern world where everyone is a reporter/cameraman.
News by Twitter.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Apparently it clipped the crane at the top of the new tower next to St George's Wharf before coming down in Wandsworth Road where it seems to have collided with cars on the ground and exploded. Two people are now confirmed dead.

I've stayed in an apartment block next door in recent times. Seems like this incident could have been much, much worse.

[duncan]

A friend of mine drives a lorry and was in Vauxhall when this happened. Some debris hit his truck but thankfully he is OK.

[Dirk Gently]

Latest report from the Met is 2 dead, 9 injured, 1 critically ill.

This is a terrible accident.

[Nyder]

I was passing through Vauxhall yesterday at that time. Yikes. What an awful accident.

[Philipnet]

We have BBC News (on mute but with the subtitles on) on the screen behind me.

This morning we've all been looking at it to see what's going on.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

People were looking out of the train windows when we passed through Vauxhall this morning. I was in the wrong part of the train to be able to see anything but there were a lot of gasps from passengers that could see it.