Five people have died after two helicopters collided and crashed in the south of France, according to local media reports.

Officials said the aircraft belonged to an army flight training school and came down in the Var region of Provence.

A gendarme said three people aboard one helicopter were killed and two people on the other. Officials gave conflicting information about how many people were aboard altogether and whether anyone had survived the crash.

Emergency services have cordoned off a broad zone around the crash site and set up a crisis centre to coordinate the search and rescue effort, according to regional newspaper Var-Matin.

The incident took place at about 9am local time around halfway between Marseille and Nice, and images posted to local news website showed large numbers of emergency services vehicles attending the scene. The crash site is located on the shores of Lake Carcès, Var-Matin reported, between the communes of Cabasse and Carcès.