Three dead in helicopter crash on Greek island of Sifnos

Three people have died following a helicopter crash on the Greek island of Sifnos on Monday, according to fire brigade officials.

The aircraft came down shortly after departure, killing the pilot and two passengers, the officials confirmed.

The cause of the incident remains unknown at present.

Footage broadcast by local news outlets depicted what appeared to be the crash site on an arid hillside, where a fireball produced a thick plume of dark smoke.

Sifnos has a permanent population of around 2,600 people, but has become a popular island to visit for tourists in recent years.

Earlier this month, a Briton survived and two people were killed after two firefighting helicopters collided while battling vast blazes tearing through an area west of Athens.

A Greek and a Danish national on one helicopter were killed, after a second helicopter with a Briton and Greek onboard collided with its rotors. Both people onboard the second helicopter survived.

Tragic footage of the collision shows two helicopters crossing paths at low altitude, before the main rotor of the lower helicopter strikes the underside of the other, causing it to crash down in flames. The second helicopter was able to fly away and carry out an emergency landing.

Both the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and president Konstantinos Tasoulas paid tribute to the firefighters killed as they were fighting a wildfire that has destroyed more than 100 homes around Psatha, Attica, northwest of Athens.

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of record-breaking heatwaves and little rain – conditions that scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change.

Destructive blazes in France and Spain have shown some signs of easing, but several wildfires have broken out in Greece after a period of relative calm there.