Three children are among thirteen people who were killed in Mexico when a helicopter carrying officials surveying the damage caused by an earthquake, crashed.

The Mexican interior minister Alfonso Navarrete and governor of the state of Oaxaca Alejandro Murat were travelling on the helicopter which was flying over Mexico City on Friday (17 February) when the pilot lost control. It crashed on top of two vans in a field while trying to land.

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12 people were killed at the scene while another died later in a hospital. Fifteen others were injured. All the officials survived the crash,

Mr Navarrete told the Televisa network the helicopter had been at a height of about 40m (130ft) and 22 miles southwest of the quake's epicentre when the pilot lost control.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto offered his condolences on Twitter writing: "Unfortunately, several people on the ground lost their lives and others were injured.

"My condolences to your relatives and my desire to promptly recover the injured."

There were no reported deaths following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, but dozens of buildings have suffered structural damage and a million people are without power, Sky news reports.

Mexico helicopter crash
The remains of the military helicopter that fell on a van in Santiago Jamiltepec, Oaxaca state, Mexico, on February 17, 2018, killing thirteen people, including three children, on the ground AFP/Getty
Mexico