A HELICOPTER crashed Tuesday evening in Savoie, southeast France, killing five, French media reported.

The French Air Service (Service Aerien Francais, or SAF) helicopter with six people on board crashed at around 7:00 p.m., from an altitude of 1,800 meters in the town of Bonvillard in Savoie, according to BFM TV.

The pilot of the helicopter who managed to eject himself sent an alert and contact has been established with one of the occupants of the aircraft. More than 40 personnel are engaged in the search and rescue operations, it added.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “To save lives, they take all the risks. Tonight in Savoie, 3 members of the French Air Rescue (SAF) and 2 CRS Alpes succumbed to a helicopter crash.”

Macron added that a wounded person is fighting for life, and expressed condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of “these French heroes.”

CRS Alpes is a unit of the National Police specialized in mountain rescue in the Alps.

The sole survivor, one of two pilots, managed to eject and was found seriously injured after the aircraft came down near the town of Bonvillard, Savoie.

The team from SAF had been conducting a training exercise when the chopper crashed.

French cops named one of the victims as Amaury Lagroy de Croutte, the head of the local detachment of the Police Nationale CRS, which serves as the general reserve for the French police. Officials say the crash could have been caused by bad weather.

The surviving pilot raised the alarm around 7:10 p.m. local time. He was part of a crew consisting of two pilots, with one in training, two winch operators and two mountain rescue workers.(SD-Agencies)