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Footage shows one of two Eurofighter jets involved in a mid-air crash hurtling to earth in northern Germany.

Lewis Hipperson works as a greenkeeper at Fleesensee Golf & Country Club in the Muritz region and filmed the disaster unfolding in the sky nearby.

One pilot was killed and another managed to parachute to safety after two unarmed German Eurofighter jets collided.

Lewis told Mirror Online the collision had left him 'shocked'.

He said: "Most of the jets fly around this area everyday and I don’t think anyone would expect an accident like this was on the cards."

He also filmed one of the pilots parachuting down to the ground.

(Image: Lewis Hipperson) (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

The pilot of a third plane who witnessed the accident said parachutes had been ejected from both aircraft.

One of the pilots was later rescued from the top of a tree but the other was found dead on the ground.

"This is a sad day for our air force," Defence Minister Ursula Von Der Leyen told reporters near the crash site in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

"We lost a soldier in a flight accident. Our thoughts are with his family and his comrades."

The jets collided about 20 minutes after they took off, she said. An armed forces spokesman said it was too early to say anything about the circumstances of the crash, and recovery teams were searching for the black box flight recorders.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images) (Image: REUTERS)

The battalion based at Laage air force base, near Rostock, where the aircraft took off, trains all pilots flying Germany's 140 Eurofighters.

They were the first two of the jets that Germany has lost since it started flying them in 2004.

Ostseewelle radio, which first reported the crash, posted a video sent in by a listener which it said showed two plumes of smoke rising from separate crash sites some distance apart.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: AFP/Getty Images) (Image: Getty Images)

It described a field of debris around the area of the crash, which it said had ignited a small forest fire.

The mayor of Nossentiner Hütte, Birgit Kurth, told Germany's NDR radio station she was "relieved" that the pilot had survived and that the plane had not come down in the village or caused further damage.

About 400 Eurofighters - made by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo - are in service around the world.

The fighter costs around €90m (£80m).