Kathmandu. Four people have died and 11 have been injured in the crash of an Italian military helicopter affiliated with the European Union’s peacekeeping mission (EUFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
EUFOR stated that the CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during a regular military exercise in the Brcko region of Bosnia on Thursday. The accident site is about 180 kilometers north of the capital, Sarajevo.
According to Italy’s Ministry of Defense, the deceased include two soldiers and two Red Cross volunteers. The Italian government stated that all those on board the helicopter were Italian citizens.
Initially, three people died in the accident. A spokesperson for Brcko Hospital said that after 12 injured people were taken to the hospital, one more person died during treatment. EUFOR stated that the condition of the other 11 injured people is stable and they are undergoing treatment.
The cause of the accident is not yet known. EUFOR stated that a detailed investigation into the incident is underway.
EUFOR mission, deployed in Bosnia since 2004, has 1,000 to 1,500 security personnel. The main responsibility of this mission is to monitor the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian War in 1995.