Six people died and two others were injured Saturday when a helicopter and a light airplane collided in midair and crashed onto a residential district of the city of Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, police said.
The chopper, an Aerospatiale AS332, and the airplane, a Cessna 172, both belonged to Nakanihon Air Service Co., based in the town of Toyoyama in Aichi Prefecture, and collided at around 11:30 a.m.
Local police confirmed Saturday afternoon that the six fatalities were the two people aboard the helicopter and four in the plane.
Three houses and an apartment building caught fire after the crash.