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Helicopter hits Panama building killing several people


    PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - A helicopter crashed into a building in a busy central district of Panama City on Thursday, killing several people, officials and emergency workers said.

    Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro said two seniorChilean military personnel visiting Panama for ananti-terrorism conference were in the helicopter, and said thatat least one of them was dead.

    Emergency workers said there could be several more dead,either more passengers or people in the building, which housesa store. A Reuters reporter at the scene saw body parts on theground as the building blazed. The back end of the helicopterwas torn off in the crash and landed on a nearby officebuilding.

    The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

    (Reporting by Andrew Beatty; Writing by Mica Rosenberg,Editing by Sandra Maler)