Gilgit: An MI-17 helicopter carrying staff of a foreign embassy made a crash landing in Naltar valley of Gilgit region killing at least seven people onboard .
The helicopter during the crash landing also hit a building of a school that caught fire.
According to DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, one of the three MI-17 helicopters carrying 11 foreigners and six Pakistanis made a crash landing in Naltar valley.
He said initial reports suggest that all passengers and crew survived while three passengers received injuries.
According to a list of passengers obtained by AFP, the ambassadors of Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Romania, Norway, South Africa, the Philippines and Poland were scheduled to fly on the helicopter.
“It was a diplomatic trip with members of 37 countries in total,” said a passenger in one of the helicopters, who requested anonymity, adding that the school had caught fire after the crash.
A senior local administrative official said: “We have been told to send in as many ambulances as we can because the situation there is ‘urgent'”.
The injured were being air lifted to a military hospital in Gilgit, the region’s administrative capital, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) to the southwest, added another senior local police official.
In the city of Gilgit, a hospital official said injured were being carried on stretchers to the emergency ward of the Combined Military Hospital.
Rescue operation was underway in the area as the injured were shifted to hospitals.
