Nine people die in a military helicopter crash in El Salvador, reported Reuters.
They are followed by the chief of police in El Salvador and a man arrested on charges of embezzling multi-million dollars.
Police Director Mauricio Ariaza was escorting Manuel Cotto, a former credit union boss, back to El Salvador when the helicopter went down in the Pasaquina region of southeastern El Salvador, near the Honduran border, on Sunday evening.
Cotto, who is accused of embezzling $35 million, was arrested earlier Sunday in Honduras after trying to flee to the United States. He was subsequently handed over to the Salvadoran police.
The other seven people who died in the crash included three police officers, three military personnel and a Ministry of Justice official.
Authorities did not immediately say what may have caused the crash, but President Naib Bukele called for an investigation in a post on the X network.
"What happened cannot remain just an “incident“,“ he wrote. He later announced three days of national mourning, “to show the solidarity of the Salvadoran people with the deceased".