BREAKING: Helicopter crashes at site of Italy avalanche tragedy

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A helicopter with six people aboard has crashed in Italy

Initial reports suggest the helicopter came down near a ski resort which has been hit by earthquakes and last week's deadly avalanche.

There were no immediate reports on any casualties.

State broadcaster RAI said the helicopter had been picking up a person injured in a skiing accident and did not appear to be involved in a rescue operation following the avalanche that buried a hotel in the same region of Italy.

Rescuers working through the night have pulled five more bodies from the wreckage of the hotel hit by last Wednesday's avalanche, bringing the death toll to 14.

The latest bodies – three men and two women – were recovered hours before families of victims were due to hold the first funerals of those killed.

Eleven people have been rescued from in and around the hotel in the Gran Sasso national park, some of them surviving for two days under ice and rubble.

But 15 people are still missing after a wall of snow crashed into the four-storey building after earthquakes shook the region.

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