Four people were killed on Friday when two television news helicopters collided while following a police chase in Phoenix, Arizona.

A pilot and photographer aboard each chopper were killed, police confirmed.

Local television station KNXV reported that it owned one of the choppers. The other was from KTVK.

Within a minute, other stations with helicopters in the area began reporting news of the crash.

The men on the choppers were doing live coverage as police chased a man driving a construction truck who had fled a traffic stop and was driving erratically, hitting several cars and driving on the sidewalk at times.

The man fleeing from police was later taken into custody after barricading himself inside a house, police said

Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on the ground was hurt.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2007)