Fire rescue helicopter crashes in Miami area; multiple hospitalized, fatalities unknown

Images posted on social media show gray smoke billowing into the air from what appears to be a residential area

A rescue helicopter has crashed near Fort Lauderdale in southeastern Florida, emergency responders said Monday morning.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office says a fire rescue helicopter crashed southwest of the Pompano Beach Airpark, which is part of the the Miami metropolitan area.

Emergency personnel responded to a call of "an aircraft alert" southwest of the airpark just after 8:45 a.m. local time, according to preliminary information from the sheriff's office.

Images posted on social media show gray smoke billowing into the air from what appears to be a residential area. 

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Fatalities not yet known

It was not immediately known if anyone died in the crash but officials said Pompano Beach Fire Rescue took two people to a local hospital. 

Officials did not say whether the victims transported had been in the helicopter.

Drivers were being asked to avoid the area of North Dixie Highway and Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach as sheriff’s office deputies and fire crews respond and investigate the crash. Dixie Highway is shut down between Northeast Fifth Street and Northeast 10th Street.

This is a developing story.