Like a stone on to roof

Witnesses said the helicopter with two police officers and a civilian pilot on board dropped like a stone, while people inside the pub heard a whoosh before the roof caved in and the air filled with dust and screams.

Firefighters said they had made ‘‘some contact’’ with an unknown number of people in the wreckage of the onestorey building, which was ‘‘very unstable’’.

‘‘It’s a case of working hard within the building to try and determine how many casualties are there,’’ fire brigade officer Lewis Ramsay said. ‘‘We are determined that we are going to get the building stable and we will be in there to carry out those rescues.’’

He said the 125 firefighters at the scene had ‘‘rescued numerous casualties’’ who had ‘‘multiple types of injuries’’.

A photographer at the scene said the helicopter appeared to have smashed through the top of the singlestorey pub on the banks of the River Clyde, with a rotor blade sticking out of the roof.

Witnesses told of confusion, terror and then bravery after the accident.

Grace MacLean, who was inside at the time of the crash, told BBC News that the revellers were listening to a Ska band at the time.

‘‘We were all just having a nice time and then there was like a ‘whoosh’ noise — there was no bang, there was no ex- plosion,’’ she said. ‘‘And then there was some smoke, what seemed like smoke. The band were laughing and we were all joking that the band had made the roof come down.

‘‘They carried on playing and then it started to come down more and someone started screaming and then the whole pub just filled with dust. You couldn’t see anything, you couldn’t breathe.’’

The band, Esperanza, later said on their Facebook page that they were all well.

Jim Murphy, a Labour party member of parliament, told the BBC that he was driving through the area soon after the incident. ‘‘There were people with injuries. Bad gashes,’’ he said.