Four people were killed Thursday when a helicopter crashed in Sicily shortly after take-off, Italian officials said dpa reported
The helicopter is believed to have hit a building housing a yacht factory, before crashing to the ground and exploding, said provincial firefighters chief Alessandro Paola.
The badly burnt bodies of the victims - two men and two women - were extracted from the wreckage, news reports said.
The crash took place near the port city of Messina, in the north of the island