Helicopter assessing Mexico quake damage crashes, 13 killed

A military helicopter carrying officials assessing damage from a powerful earthquake crashed Friday in southern Mexico, killing 13 people and injuring 15, all of them on the ground.

The Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that five women, four men and three children were killed at the scene Friday and another person died later at the hospital.

Mexico’s Interior Department said that the helicopter was carrying Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state Gov. Alejandro Murat, who were evaluating reports of damage from the earthquake, when their helicopter crashed as it was trying to land.

The chopper crashed on top of two vans in an open field in Santiago Jamiltepec.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally put the magnitude of Friday’s quake at 7.5 but later lowered it to 7.2.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.