TOKYO, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- One crew member is feared dead and another is missing following a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) attack helicopter crashing near a school in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Monday.
According to prefectural officials, one of the two crew members is feared dead as a result of the crash, which set a nearby residential building ablaze.
Local police said that no one was at home at the time the building caught fire and no injuries have been reported from two schools also close to the scene of the crash.
"We are confirming whether there are any deaths and damage," Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera was quoted as telling a press briefing on the matter.
The Saga Prefectural Police Headquarters reportedly received an emergency call at around 4:45 p.m. local time (0745 GMT) that a military helicopter had crashed near the Chiyoda Chubu Elementary School in Kanzaki City.
Rescue services were deployed to the scene, where plumes of black were billowing from the crash site.
The local city office said that the helicopter crash had resulted in a residential building catching fire near the elementary school and the Dairyuji kindergarten in the city.
An eyewitness from the kindergarten was quoted as saying she heard a loud "bang" but confirmed no one at the kindergarten was injured.
The principle at the Chiyoda Chubu Elementary School said that he could see pillars of fire and black smoke in the vicinity, but said none of the students were injured in the crash.
A woman in her 70s told local media she heard a "terrible noise" and went outside her house to see that a two-story house was on fire.
Another eyewitness in her 60s said she heard an unusual sound and looked up to see a helicopter rapidly descending with its nose pitched down.
"After it crashed, I could see black smoke rising. I was very scared," she told local media.
The defense ministry said the chopper that went down was an AH-64 (Apache).
The helicopter is a four-blade, twin-turboshaft attack helicopter and belongs to a GSDF unit in Saga's neighboring prefecture of Kumamoto, the defense ministry said.
