TV helicopter crashes live on air in LA while filming deadly bus collision

A TV helicopter crashed live on air in Los Angeles while it was filming the scene of a bus crash which happened just hours earlier.

Three people have died in the helicopter crash, including at least one pedestrian who was in the car park where the helicopter crashed, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Two of the victims were declared dead at the spot of the crash.

A fourth person has been taken to hospital in an unknown condition.

Firefighters scrambled to extinguish the fire and recover any injured people from the scene, helicopter footage showed.

The aircraft crashed near the StorCal Self Storage facility, colliding with two shipping containers and several vehicles in the area.

The blaze was mostly extinguished by around 7.30pm (3.30am BST), but at least one storage container was seen burning into the evening.

Authorities have not officially confirmed which news organisation the chopper belongs to.

But Conan Nolan, presenting local channel KNBC, said the station had lost contact with its aircraft, adding it was a "very sad day in this newsroom".

Extraordinary footage from the chopper showed its cameras zooming into the bus crash before it plummeted towards the ground.

LAFD Captain Branden Silverman described the state of the helicopter as "fully involved in fire" as he arrived at the scene, along with several vehicles struck by the aircraft.

Mr Silverman could not confirm how many casualties were inside the helicopter, or how many people have been injured in total.

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He added: "The helicopter itself, it's pretty well destroyed, so we are going to have to go through the rubble and see how many victims there were on board as well as identify the helicopter."

The cause of the crash, reported just before 7pm, remains unclear.

It remains unclear how many others were injured in the helicopter crash, but local media reported seeing no ambulances leaving the scene.

Both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board have been contacted to assist with the investigation, firefighters said.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is also investigating the horror accident and has deployed its own helicopter to the scene.

The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 B2 built in 2004 according to FAA records, was near where an SUV collided with a Metro bus in the Chatsworth area, according to Los Angeles Fire Department officials.

In the earlier bus crash, two people were killed and six more were injured, but circumstances leading up to that collision remain unclear.

One person was found dead outside the bus, while the other is believed to have been ejected from of the bus.

"Firefighters are extricating the trapped patients and assessing all passengers on the bus," the LAFD said in a statement.

The bus crash happened just feet away from a bus stop and traffic in the area had come to a halt.