Italy locates 7 bodies at scorched crash site of helicopter

Italian rescuers on Saturday located the bodies of seven people, including four Turks and two Lebanese, who died when their helicopter crashed in a heavily forested, mountainous area in north-central Italy during a storm, authorities said.

Col. Alfonso Cipriano, who heads an air force rescue coordination unit that led the search, said rescuers were tipped off to the crash site after a mountain runner reported seeing what he thought was a part of the mangled chopper during an excursion on Mount Cusna on Saturday morning.

Air crews confirmed the site and ground crews initially located five bodies, and then the other two, Cipriano told The Associated Press. The location was in a hard-to-reach valley and the chopper remains were hidden to air rescuers from the lush tree cover, but some branches were broken and burned.