South Korea's Army confirmed on Wednesday that an army helicopter crashed early on the day and killed all seven soldiers on board.

The UH-1H helicopter crashed at about 1:40 a.m. (1640 GMT Tuesday) near a mountain in Yangpyong, Gyeonggi Province, when it was returning to its base after dropping off an emergency patient at a military hospital near Seoul, the Army said.

Immediately after the accident, the Army searched the areas mobilizing all its available sources and located the bodies of all seven people on board and the wreckage of the helicopter, the Army Public Affairs Office said in a released statement.

Two Army pilots, two medical officers and three enlisted members were killed in the crash, the statement said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2008)