Three people have been critically injured after a helicopter crash in Sacramento, according to the Californian city’s fire department.

Images from the scene show a medical helicopter lying upside down on the eastbound lanes of Highway 50.

The helicopter had taken a patient to a hospital and was returning to the place it had been dispatched from when it experienced an “in-air emergency” just after 7pm local time (3am UK time), according to Captain Justin Sylvia, from the Sacramento Fire Department.

He said there were a pilot, nurse, and paramedic on board at the time of the crash, who were taken to local hospitals in “critical condition”. Mr Sylvia said the crew consisted of two women and one man.

One of the women was trapped underneath the helicopter, with civilians on the highway helping the fire department to lift part of the helicopter out of the way to free the victim and get her into an ambulance.

“It took every ounce of all approximately 15 people to move that aircraft up just enough to get her out,” Mr Sylvia said at a news conference.

He added: “There’s a pretty large debris field around that at this point. The lucky portion for us, I’d say, is the fact that the helicopter did not catch on fire.”

No vehicles were involved in the crash and no one on the highway was injured, Mr Sylvia said, adding that this was “mind-blowing” given that the helicopter crashed in the centre of the road.

“People reported that they basically saw the helicopter kind of going down quickly. So all the traffic slowed down,” he explained.

Sacramento City councilwoman Lisa Kaplan said she was on a ride-along with local law enforcement responding to the crash.

She described plumes of white smoke coming out of the crashed helicopter.

“It’s really sombering and sobering. I am up flying with sheriff pilots that do this day in and day out. And it really makes you grateful for every day and grateful for our officers and our medical pilots,” she said.

The road is expected to be closed for an extended time, according to Officer Michael Harper, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol.

“The cause of the crash is still under investigation,” his colleague, Officer Mike Carillo, added.

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The helicopter appears to belong to REACH Air Medical Services, which confirmed to ABC7 that three of its crew were hurt in the crash.

The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal request from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, over her criminal conviction.

Maxwell was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in prison after being convicted in December 2021 on sex trafficking charges.

Her lawyers argued she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

The nine justices declined to take up a case that would have drawn renewed attention to the sexual-abuse saga.

US President Donald Trump and his administration, which urged the court not to accept the case, have been condemned for refusing to publicly release all the files from Epstein’s case.

Maxwell was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.

As usual, the justices on the highest court in the US did not explain why they turned down the appeal.

Maxwell’s legal team argued she shouldn’t have faced prosecution because of a deal that Epstein, who took his own life while in prison in 2019, made with federal prosecutors in Miami.

The 2007 agreement protected his “potential co-conspirators” from federal charges anywhere in the country, they said.

Maxwell was prosecuted in Manhattan, and the federal appeals court there ruled that the prosecution was proper.

A jury found her guilty of sex trafficking a teenage girl, among other charges.

Maxwell was given limited immunity when Mr Blanche interviewed her over the summer, allowing her to speak freely without fear of prosecution for anything she said except for in the event of a false statement.

She repeatedly denied seeing any sexually inappropriate interactions involving Mr Trump, according to records released in August meant to distance the president from the disgraced financer.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls.

A month later, he was found dead in a New York jail cell in what investigators described as a suicide.

Maxwell’s move to a lower security facility was criticised by the family of Epstein abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, and accusers Annie and Maria Farmer.

Describing Maxwell as a “sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions”, they said in a statement the transfer “smacks of a cover up. The victims deserve better”.

When it announced in July that no additional documents from the investigation would be released, the US Justice Department declared that Epstein had killed himself, despite conspiracy theories to the contrary.

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A “client list” that US Attorney General Pam Bondi had intimated was on her desk did not actually exist, the department said.

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Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of 300 National Guard members to Chicago, the latest in a string of cities where US troops have been sent.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson confirmed the US president authorised the move, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.

“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” Ms Jackson said.

Chicago is the latest city in the US where Mr Trump has authorised the deployment of US troops, as it follows similar orders for Los Angeles, Washington and Portland.

Democratic governor JB Pritzker branded the move unnecessary and “a manufactured performance – not a serious effort to protect public safety”.

The Illinois governor said in a statement: “This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will.

“It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

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It comes as an attempt by the Trump administration to deploy the National Guard in Portland, Oregon, was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in a lawsuit brought by the state and city.

The plaintiffs said a deployment would violate the US constitution as well as a federal law that generally prohibits the military from being used to enforce domestic laws.

Mr Trump ordered the deployment of troops to “war-ravaged Portland” last week, authorising the use of “full force” if needed.

The move came after a gunman opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Dallas, wounding two detainees and killing another.

Mr Trump sent the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and to Washington DC, as part of his law enforcement takeover there.