Search and rescue mission under way as helicopter crashes near site of Italy avalanche

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A helicopter with six people aboard has crashed in Italy

A spokesperson for the Italian civil protection department said initial reports suggested the helicopter it had picked up a person injured on the slopes near the Campo Felice ski resort.

The aircraft came down on the other side of Italy's Gran Sasso mountain range about 62 miles from the site of a massive rescue operation following last week's avalanche that buried the Hotel Rigopiano near Abruzzo in the same region of Italy.

Italian media reported that the helicopter was heading back to a hospital in the provincial capital of L'Aquila after picking up the injured skier.

There were no immediate reports on any casualties.

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The helicopter crashed near the scene of last week's avalanche

The rescue operation at the avalanche site is ongoing and teams working through the night pulled five more bodies from the wreckage of the hotel, 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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The search and rescue operation continues at the hotel hit by an avalanche last weekOriginal Article