New Zealand helicopter crash: Four British tourists 'feared dead'

Two Australian tourists and a local pilot were also believed to be among the dead following the crash on Saturday

Four British tourists are feared dead after a helicopter crashed into a glacier, killing seven people, in New Zealand.

Two Australians, four Britons and a local pilot are reported to have perished when the Eurocopter Squirrel helicopter, operated by Alpine Adventures, went down at around 11am (local time) on Saturday in an area on Fox Glacier described as “heavily crevassed” in the south of the country.

“We are urgently investigating reports that British nationals were involved in a helicopter crash in New Zealand,” a Foreign Office spokesperson told The Independent.

Relatives of the individuals on board are being notified, Stuff New Zealand reported.

Bad weather has so far prevented emergency services from recovering the victims’ bodies, with local police saying the operation is “likely to take some days.”

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn described weather conditions around the glacier as “very, very tricky” to fly in.

Four helicopters responded to the crash yesterday, with a paramedic and rescuer winched down to the remote scene, but inspector John Canning ruled out a recovery mission until conditions improve as he was “not going to risk any more lives, we’ve lost seven.”

It is the sixth crash to take place on the glacier since 2010.