Contact Us

10 killed after military helicopter crashes in Colombia

Compiled from news agencies WORLD
Published January 17,2018
Subscribe

Ten people, including eight soldiers, were killed Tuesday when a Colombian army helicopter crashed in northern Antioquia province.

The incident occurred in the town of Segovia, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.

Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas also said on social media that security forces found the wreckage of the helicopter.

The reason for the crash is still not known, Villegas added.​

"The hypothesis is of an accident, it is being investigated," General Juan Vicente Trujillo, head of the army's aviation division, told journalists, ruling out an attack as the cause of the crash.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group, which recently restarted attacks after the end of a ceasefire with the government, is active in the area.

Troops were at the site working to recover the bodies of the victims, Trujillo said.

Colombia reached a peace agreement with the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group last year, ending five decades of war. But the ELN, FARC dissidents, right-wing ex-paramilitaries and crime gangs remain active.