7 including 2 children dead in mid-air collision between plane, chopper in Spain

Madrid: Seven people including two children were killed in a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a light aircraft over Spain's Mallorca island on Sunday, authorities said.

The two aircraft crashed over the central town of Inca at 1:35 pm (1135 GMT), the regional Balearic Islands government said on its Twitter account. Everyone aboard the two aircraft -- two on the plane and five on the helicopter -- perished in the crash, a police spokesman said.

A couple and their two children were aboard the helicopter along with the pilot, the spokesman told AFP.

The helicopter was registered in Germany, "which doesn't necessarily mean the occupants were of this nationality," he said, stressing that an investigation into the victims' nationalities was still under way.

Police said the two aircraft crashed into a field. Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands are popular with both Spanish and foreign tourists, especially in the summer season.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed condolences to the victims' families, and said in a tweet that he was "following the news from... Mallorca with concern."