Rudraprayag (U'khand) (PTI): A helicopter ferrying pilgrims back from the Kedarnath temple crashed on Tuesday amid poor visibility, killing all seven people onboard.

The chopper burst into flames close to Garud Chatti and Jungle Chatti, killing six pilgrims and the pilot, Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh said.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief and ordered a detailed inquiry into the crash.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said his ministry is constantly monitoring the situation.

"The helicopter crash in Kedarnath is extremely unfortunate. We are in touch with the state government to ascertain the magnitude of the loss, and are constantly monitoring the situation," he said in a tweet.

A senior civil aviation ministry official said the helicopter involved in the crash was operated by Aryan Aviation.

"According to the preliminary information, a Bell 407 helicopter VT-RPN crashed on the way from Kedarnath to Guptkashi, possibly due to bad weather," a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

 

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Chandigarh, Jan 23 (PTI): Punjab Police personnel deployed in the security of Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal have been withdrawn, the state police chief said on Thursday.

"Time to time, we get reports of threats to chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal and we share them with the concerned agencies.

"Following the directions of the Delhi police and the Election Commission today, we withdrew the component of the Punjab police in the security of Kejriwal ji," Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav told reporters in Patiala.

"We showed our concerns to them. We will remain in touch with them. We will share our inputs with the Delhi police," he said.

The development comes ahead of the elections for the 70-member Delhi Assembly on February 5. The poll results are set to be declared on February 8.