Dubai: A private helicopter with two people on board crashed while taking off from Atlantis on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai on Wednesday, police sources have confirmed.

Of the two people on board one is said to be critical, the other has sustained moderate injuries. Both were airlifted to Rashid Hospital.

Police said the crash happened just before noon causing massive traffic jams on the Palm.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing fire trucks, police cars, ambulances and helicopters rushing to the scene of the incident.

Twitter user Corinne, tweeting from @corinnedaze, wrote: "A stack of police cars driving very fast drove past our place."

A second tweet said: "Definitely something happening. Don't know what!"

Another Palm resident added: "Loads of fire trucks, police, ambulances and now helicopters. Must be something big going on.

"Lots of emergency vehicles racing down towards the end of the palm, sirens on, looks like some big problem somewhere. Helicopters circling."

No one from Atlantis was available for comment.

Update

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said on Thursday that no one on the ground was hurt in the helicopter crash at Palm Jumeirah and both the pilot and crew are in stable condition.

It said in the statement that the accident involved one of the Authority’s helicopters and the crash happened at 3.33pm.

“The helicopter had a pilot and one member of our ground staff on board. No members of the public were involved,” said the statement.

Police had said that the injured had to be flown by helicopter to the Trauma Centre.

The cause of the accident is as yet unknown, the statement said.