Police in Karlsruhe said the two aircraft, including a rescue helicopter, collided mid-air and fell onto open fields near a local recreational lake, Erlichsee, set among gravel extraction pits.

The German air rescue organization DRF said its helicopter had been on a training flight in the Speyer city area which lies north of the crash scene.

"Based on the current information, both pilots of the DRF Air Rescue as well as the two occupants of the light aircraft lost their lives," DRF said in an initial press release, adding it was wholly unclear what caused the collision.

Details scarce

"We are dealing with a large field of rubble," said a police spokesman in Karlsruhe, 35 kilometers (22 miles) to the south.

The other aircraft, a small recreational plane, was reportedly en route from Basel in Switzerland to Speyer.

The crash scene, which was sealed off, lies about five kilometers (around three miles) east of Philippsburg, a town of 13,000, and its adjacent Philippsburg nuclear plant.

Plant untouched

Initial reports suggested the nuclear plant was untouched.

The plant, on the banks of the river Rhine, has one active reactor which is due to be shut down in 2019.

It belongs to Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW), a publicly-traded concern, now focused on renewable energy capture, whose shares are largely in the hands of the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg and its municipalities.

Campaigning for closure

German environmental groups, including Greenpeace, have long campaigned for the closure of Philippsburg II.

The plant's first reactor block, Philippsburg I, is currently being dismantled. It was closed down in 2011, the year of Japan's Fukushima disaster.

ipj/msh (AFP, dpa)</s>Four people were killed after a rescue helicopter collided in mid-air with a small plane in Germany.

The accident happened on Tuesday (23 January) near to Philippsburg in south west Germany, not far from the French border.

Both aircraft came down over a gravel pit on the outskirts of the town of 13,000 people, which is the site of one of Germany's nuclear power plants. No other casualties have been reported.

German Air Rescue announced in a press release: "According to current knowledge, the two pilots of the DRF Luftrettung and two passengers of the small plane were killed. The cause of the accident is still completely unknown."

Police and emergency services are currently working at the scene to establish the cause of the accident, which happened at around 1pm local time.

A police spokesman: "We do not know yet who was sitting in which machine. Right now we need to get an overview of the situation first."

One of the worst to ever occur in the country was in 2002 when a passenger jet and a cargo jet hit each other over Uberlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 people on board the two planes.</s>The scene of the crash near Philippsburg on Tuesday. Photo: DPA

Four people were killed on Tuesday when a small plane and a helicopter collided in southwestern Germany, police said.

The two aircraft crashed in the skies above the town of Philippsburg, close to the French border, a German police spokesman said, adding that he was unable to say if there may be other victims.

Both aircraft went down between the town of Rheinhausen and Erlich lake in Baden-Württemberg and the site of the accident is reportedly near a gravel plant.

The cause of the collision also remains unclear, and the area where the aircraft came down has been cordoned off.

It also remains unknown whether the plane and the helicopter collided in the air over inhabited or uninhabited areas.

Collisions between aircraft in the sky are rare. Usually in accidents in the skies only one aircraft is affected. In a case in 2002 in Germany, a freight plane struck a passenger flight at high altitudes, killing dozens of people.</s>At least four people were killed when a light aircraft and a medical helicopter crashed in Germany on Tuesday, local police reported.

The accident occurred when the two crashed midair over a rural area near the southwestern town of Philippsburg, in the Karlsruhe district.

It is as yet unclear if the medical helicopter was carrying emergency patients on board when it hit the plane.

Images by an epa photographer on the ground showed firefighters standing beside smoking wreckage, which was partially obscured by the tall plants growing in the field.

Karlsruhe police said several officers were deployed to the site, alongside firefighting trucks, rescue teams, ambulances and a rescue helicopter.

The epa images showed a police boat was also brought to the scene.</s>Four people are dead after a fiery mid-air crash involving an air ambulance and a small plane in Germany.

There was an explosion when the aircraft collided and crashed to the ground near Philippsburg, in the south-western Karlsruhe district, it was reported.

An air ambulance crew was sent to the crash site, near a gravel pit and airfield, to transport possible survivors - including colleagues - to hospital.

It was unclear whether anyone survived the tragedy.

Karlsruhe police wrote in a tweet: "Several dead in an aircraft accident in Oberhausen-Reinhausen.

"So far, it is known that four people have died in the collision."

The cause of Tuesday afternoon's crash is under investigation.</s>A plane and a helicopter have collided in mid-air, killing four people

Details of the fatalities are not yet known.

It is unclear if medical helicopter was carrying any emergency patients when the collision happened today.

Police said it is unknown how the accident happened.

According to reports, flaming debris and wreckage was scattered across a wide area around Phillipsburg.

There are no reports of whether there were more casualties on the ground.
A helicopter and a light aircraft collide mid-air close to the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant in Germany, killing four people.