Philippine police chief, 7 others injured in chopper crash

A helicopter carrying the Philippine national police chief, three other generals and four other people crashed on Thursday after hitting a power cable in a swirl of dust as it took off, injuring those on board, police officials said.

General Archie Francisco Gamboa, his companions and the flight crew were taken to hospitals, officials said. The crash happened in San Pedro city in Laguna province south of Manila after the group met with local police officials.

Among those with Gamboa were his intelligence chief and spokesman. Gamboa was fine in a hospital, police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said by telephone.

A villager, Glenda Garcia, told The Associated Press that the helicopter whipped up a thick cloud of dust as it took off, hit a power cable then crashed with a loud thud on a road near houses in a rural village.

“It was really loud and we ran away in fear because we thought the helicopter would move out of control in a circle and hit us," Garcia said, adding that power in her village was cut due to the crash.

A motorcycle was damaged but apparently no people on the ground were hurt in the crash. A part of the propeller or rotor blades also hit the roof of a nearby house, Garcia and police officials said.

TV footage showed the damaged helicopter on its side, with firefighters trying to put out a small fire in one part of the wreckage.

Gamboa and other police officials had flown to the area to inspect seized vehicles in a compound of the national police’s highway patrol group. They were heading to a police camp in the region for more meetings when their chopper crashed, police officials said.

Gamboa temporarily took over the national police force in October after his predecessor retired early after being linked to illegal drugs.

The 200,000-strong police force has enforced President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead in a bloody campaign that has alarmed Western governments and human rights groups since he took office in mid-2016.

Duterte formally designated Gamboa as the chief of police force last month.