Seven people have been killed in a helicopter crash in the Himalayan mountains of northern India, officials have confirmed.
The aircraft was travelling from Kedarnath along a Hindu pilgrimage route in the state of Uttarakhand, reports suggest.
The tragedy comes just days after the Air India crash on Thursday, June 12, which saw at least 270 people lose their lives.
Rescue teams were sent to the site immediately after the crash and police are in the process of retrieving the bodies, the BBC reports.
The pilot, five passengers and a two-year-old child were on board the the Aryan Aviation Bell 407 helicopter VT-BKA flight, which was bound for Guptkashi, a popular pilgrimage site.
The aircraft embarked just after 5.15am local time on Sunday, India's Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
The CEO of Uttarakhand's Civil Aviation Department said: "At around 5am, we got the information that a helicopter, which was going from Shri Kedarnath Dham, could not be located."
It was then discovered the helicopter had crashed near Gaurikund. An investigation will be carried out by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
Uttarakhand's director-general of information, Bansidhar Tripathi, stated there were "three emergency landings and two helicopter crashes in the past month and a half" on the Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage route, which will be completely closed until Monday.
Tripathi said helicopter services will only resume when meetings with all operators have been carried out, with the experience of all pilots in the Himalayan region to be checked.
Negligence at whatever level will be identified
"The negligence at whatever level has been committed will be identified and punitive action will be ensured," said state's chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who described the incident as "very sad".
The four Hindu pilgrimage sites in the Himalayan mountains — Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Kedarnath — are visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year.
To cater for the tourist trade, a growing number of helicopter charter firms have been set up to serve wealthy people wishing to visit the shrines but avoid the difficult mountain trekking.
India is still reeling from the shock of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash into a medical college in Ahmedabad, which saw at least 270 people killed — including 241 people on board the plane.
Some 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national were on board the flight.
