Four dead in US helicopter crash in Italy

ROME, Nov 8 (Reuters) Four Americans were killed and six others wounded today when their US Blackhawk helicopter crashed in northern Italy, the Italian fire brigade said.

All were US military personnel who took off from the nearby US military base in Aviano, Italy, a fire brigade spokesman said.

The Americans were on a training exercise, ANSA news agency reported.

There were no details on the possible cause of the crash and a press officer at the US embassy in Rome said she had no information. A spokeswoman at the Aviano base said she also had no confirmation yet of the reports.

''There are four dead - two bodies have already been extracted (from the wreckage) while the other two are still inside,'' the fire brigade spokesman said.

The crash took place in a rural area outside the northern Italian city of Treviso, along the bank of the Piave river.

''It appears the helicopter was a single-rotor Blackhawk with four blades,'' said a fire brigade official. ''It looks like it went down between the bridge on state (highway) 13 and the bridge on highway A27.'' REUTERS MS RAI1937