One person has been airlifted to hospital after a helicopter crashed into a field on the Isle of Wight, emergency services say.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary were called to the scene of a “light aircraft crash” off Shanklin Road near Ventnor at 9.24am, the force said.

A critical care team, including a doctor and specialist paramedic, was also sent, Hants and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance added, alongside fire engines and other emergency vehicles.

A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance said in a statement: “We have treated and airlifted one patient to the Major Trauma Centre, University Hospital Southampton. Our thoughts are with them, and everyone involved in today’s incident.”

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch confirmed it was alerted to the incident and is sending a team to investigate.

A witness, Leigh Goldsmith, told the Isle of Wight County Press she saw the helicopter “spiralling” before crashing into a hedge as she drove along a nearby road on Monday morning.

She claimed she saw four people on board and believed the aircraft’s airbags had been activated.

“The road is closed due to the number of emergency services vehicles at the scene, so please avoid the area at this time,” police said in their statement.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the latest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news

Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern about the omission of child sexual abuse from the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report. 

Groups including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and The Children’s Society wrote to Yvette Cooper to say that violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child sexual abuse are “inherently and deeply connected”, suggesting any “serious strategy” to address VAWG needs to focus on child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The letter comes after Sky News revealed an internal Home Office document, titled Our draft definition of VAWG, which said that child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “explicitly within the scope” of their strategy, due to be published in September.

Responding to Sky News’ original report, Poppy Eyre, who was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four, said: “VAWG is – violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”

The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office and a signatory to the letter, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.

The NSPCC “welcome” the government’s pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, but is “worried that if they are going to fulfil this commitment, the strategy absolutely has to include clear deliverable objectives to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation too”, the head of policy, Anna Edmundson, told Sky News.

She warned the government “will miss a golden opportunity” and the needs of thousands of girls will be “overlooked” if child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “at the heart of its flagship strategy”.

The government insists the VAWG programme will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also wants to create a distinctive plan to “ensure those crimes get the specialist response they demand”.

“My message to the government is that if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now,” Poppy told Sky News.

Read more from Sky News:
Why Donald Trump believes he ‘deserves the Nobel Peace Prize’
Bank holiday temperatures to climb close to 30C before rain arrives

Rape Crisis, which is one of the largest organisations providing support to women in England and Wales, shares these concerns.

It wants plans to tackle child sexual abuse to be part of the strategy, and not to sit outside it.

“If a violence against women and girls strategy doesn’t include sexual violence towards girls, then it runs the risk of being a strategy for addressing some violence towards some females, but not all,” chief executive Ciara Bergman said.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government is “working tirelessly to tackle the appalling crimes of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse, as part of our Safer Streets mission”.

“We are already investing in new programmes and introducing landmark laws to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to these crimes, as well as acting on the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s review into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,” they added.

A 54-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a restaurant fire in east London on Friday.

Three people were taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the fire at the Indian Aroma in Ilford.

Two remained in a critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The restaurant suffered extensive damage in the blaze.

Two further victims are thought to have left the scene before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.

Police are still trying to identify them.

CCTV footage seen by the PA news agency appears to show a group of people wearing face coverings walk into the restaurant and pour liquid on the floor.

Seconds later, the inside of the restaurant is engulfed in flames.

“While we have made two arrests, our investigation continues at pace so we can piece together what happened on Friday evening,” said the Met Police’s DCI Mark Rogers.

“I know the community [is] concerned and shocked by this incident.

“I would urge anyone with any information or concerns to come forward and speak to police.”

Hospital porter Edward Thawe went to help after hearing screams from his nearby home.

He described the scene as “horrible” and “more than scary and the sort of thing that you don’t want to look at twice.”

He said: “I heard screaming and people saying they had called the police.”

Read more from Sky News:
Pro-Palestine Australians protest after week of tension with Israel
‘I’m deprived of my UK citizenship but I’m not a convicted terrorist’
Ghislaine Maxwell was given ‘platform to rewrite history’

The 43-year-old said he saw a woman and a severely burned man who may have been customers.

Another witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw three “severely burned” people being doused by the emergency services and given oxygen.

“I can only imagine the pain they were going through,” he said.

On Saturday, the London Ambulance Service told Sky News: “We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.

“We treated five people for burns and smoke inhalation. We took two patients to a major trauma centre and three others to local hospitals.”

The police investigation is continuing.