Sunday Times 2
Scottish police helicopter crashes into pub
View(s):GLASGOW, Nov 30 (AFP) – Scottish emergency services raced today to rescue people trapped in the unstable wreckage of a Glasgow pub after a police helicopter crashed into the building, causing numerous casualties including probable fatalities.
The chopper smashed through the roof of the crowded Clutha Pub, where more than 100 revellers had been listening to a band on Friday night ahead of St Andrews Day, which celebrates Scotland’s patron saint.
Emergency services inspect the roof of a pub where a police helicopter crashed in central Glasgow, Scotland, shortly after midnight on November 30. AFP
Witnesses said the helicopter with two police officers and a civilian pilot on board dropped like a stone, while people inside the pub heard a whoosh before the roof caved in and the air filled with dust and screams.
Firefighters said they had made “some contact” with an unknown number of people in the wreckage of the one-storey building, which was “very unstable”.
“It’s a case of working hard within the building to try and determine how many casualties are there,” Fire brigade officer Lewis Ramsay told reporters “We are determined that we are going to get the building stable and we will be in there to carry out those rescues.” Ramsay said the 125 firefighters at the scene had “rescued numerous casualties” who had “multiple types of injuries”.
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond — who just days earlier was celebrating the release of a legal blueprint for independence — sadly confirmed that a police helicopter had been involved in the “tragic accident”.
“Given an incident of this scale we must all prepare ourselves for the likelihood of fatalities,” he said.
An AFP photographer at the scene said the helicopter appeared to have smashed through the top of the single-storey pub on the banks of the River Clyde, with a rotor blade sticking out of the roof.
Police officer Rose Fitzgerald said it was too early to say why the Eurocopter EC135 helicopter crashed.