Two Military helicopters crash in south of France, 5 Dead
In this photo, an AgustaWestland AW189 helicopter flies over the Leonardo Helicopters factory on Jan. 30, 2018, in Vergiate, near Milan. Getty Images / Marco Bertorello

Update: 11:31 a.m. local time (5:31 a.m. EST) — Mayors of Carcès and Cabasse, Patrick Genre and Yannick Simon, respectively, arrived at the scene of the crash. They released a joint statement saying, "We went to the scene, we discovered a conjugation between two helicopters of the army.We do not know what are the circumstances of the accident, but there are five deaths, it is appalling."

French politician and Mayor of Toulon, a city in southern France, Hubert Falco also offered his compassion and support to the families of the victims.

Update: 11:03 a.m. local time (5:03 a.m. EST) — French sportsman and politician, Christian Estrosi, interrupted the meeting of the municipal council in Nice to honor the memory of the victims.

Update: 10:23 a.m. local time (4:23 a.m. EST) — The army has confirmed the crash and will reveal the identity of the victims soon.

Two army helicopters crashed in France on Friday morning, killing at least five people on board. The crash took place between Cabasse and Carcès in the Var, a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.

According to an initial report in Var-matin, the crash took place on the shores of Lake Carcès, near Veolia station. There were conflicting reports on the number of people that were onboard. Latest report suggested relief team found three bodies in one helicopter and a fourth one in the other. The search for the fifth body was ongoing.

While Van-matin reported five people were onboard the two helicopters, all of whom were killed, Airlive reported there was an ongoing search for a sixth person who was apparently on board.

As of now, three helicopters were deployed on site along with several firefighters. A helicopter from EALAT (École de l'aviation légère de l'armée de terre or Land Army Light Aviation) also went on site around 9:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. EST)

It was not clear as to what caused the crash, however, it was confirmed the two helicopters involved in the crash also belonged to the military flying school EALAT.

Reports stated the choppers were two Gazelles, a French five-seat helicopter, commonly used for light transport, scouting and light attack duties.

This is a breaking story. Check back for more updates.

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