Glasgow pub helicopter crash: victims named
Six of the eight people who died when a police helicopter crashed into a busy Glasgow pub on Friday night are named.
Gary Arthur, 48, from Paisley, was named by Police Scotland as one of the people who died in The Clutha bar.
All three crew in the helicopter died. They were police officers Tony Collins and Kirsty Nelis, and pilot David Traill.
John McGarrigle, 59, and Mark O’Prey, 44, were also reportedly killed in the crash.
Another body was removed from the site at around 11am on Sunday, police have confirmed.
Three people in the helicopter died when it hit the bar at about 10.25pm on Friday.
Five people inside the pub also died.
A further 12 people are being treated for serious injuries.
Special service in Glasgow
Special prayers are to be said and candles will be lit at a special service at Glasgow Cathedral on Sunday, where Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be among those attending.
Emergency services are still working to recover bodies from the Clutha Vaults pub in Stockwell Street close to the city centre.
John McGarrigle, 38, said an eyewitness had told him that his father, also John McGarrigle, 59, had been killed.
“Extensive efforts continue to recover the remaining bodies from the scene but due to ongoing safety constraints this is likely to take some time,” a Police Scotland spokesman said.
The Queen, Prime Minister David Cameron and Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond have expressed their condolences to those caught up in the tragedy.
Dropped ‘like a stone’
Witnesses said the Eurocopter EC135 T2 came down “like a stone” from the sky, hitting the roof of the Clutha when more than 100 people were inside the bar.
Police have launched a major investigation under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
Members of the public formed a human chain to help remove those inside the popular music venue in Stockwell Street after the crash.
The area around the bar remains cordoned off as emergency services carry out a “rescue and recovery” operation.
Sir Stephen House, Chief Constable of Police Scotland, said rescuers are working in a “complicated and dangerous” environment, and that the rescue operation will go on for many days yet.
‘Dominating whole space’
It is not known how many people are still in the building.
Sir Stephen said: “We do not know that. We are still in what we are determining as a rescue and recovery situation.
“The helicopter is in there and it is dominating the whole space within the building.
“Until it is out of the way, we won’t know everything that is going on underneath the helicopter. We simply can’t say what the situation is at this moment definitively.”