British military helicopter crashes

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- A British military helicopter crashed Saturday in Northern Ireland, injuring seven of the nine people on board, two of them critically, army and hospital officials said.

Army officials in the British province said they had ruled out a terrorist attack but were still investigating the cause of the crash.

The Puma helicopter, normally used to ferry soldiers among several hilltop watchtowers in the South Armagh border region, was carrying three crew members and six passengers when it crashed near Jonesborough, less than a mile from the Irish border, they said.

Four military personnel and two civilian employees of the military were airlifted to a hospital in nearby Newry, where a spokesman said four of the six were in critical condition. He said they suffered from a range of spinal, back and head injuries.

The two most severely injured -- a soldier and a civilian -- were later transferred from there to a hospital in Belfast.