Breaking news : 17 feared dead as helicopter carrying Statoil workers crashes
. A helicopter crashed off the western coast of Norway on Friday, police said, with media reporting that 13 to 17 people were on board.
Eleven of those on board were Norwegian, one was British and one Italian.
Photos from the scene show thick smoke coming from an area of rocky islets.
The helicopter was "totally destroyed", reports said. It was flying from the Gullfaks oil field to Bergen, a centre for the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Several witnesses described seeing a powerful explosion and people were seen in the sea, television station TV2 reported, adding that some people had been rescued.
“Emergency services en route to a zone near Turoy after reports of a helicopter crash,” Norwegian police wrote on Twitter, referring to an island off the western town of Bergen. First reports indicated the helicopter was transporting workers to an offshore oil field in the North Sea.
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