Image copyright Gerard Murray Image caption Irish Air Corps helicopters are at the scene in County Armagh

The Irish Air Corps has been called to help deal with a gorse fire in County Armagh.

It follows a request from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) to attend the incident at Slieve Gullion, two miles across the border.

The gorse fire covers an area of approximately 100 acres and is encroaching upon an area of special scientific interest.

NIFRS said it requested assistance due to the deep-seated nature of the fire.

A fire service spokesperson said two Irish Air Corps helicopters are at the scene.

Skip Twitter post by @LeoVaradkar @IrishAirCorps helping Northern Ireland Fire Service with fire on Slieve Gullion. Latest example of how @dfpo and Air Corps are helping other agencies to keep communities safe. Approval granted following request from Northern Ireland. Air Corps on standby for others. — Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) July 10, 2018 Report

"One is involved in aerial fire fighting and one is being used as an observation point."

Image copyright NIFRS Image caption The gorse fire covers an area of approximately 100 acres

Four fire appliances, specialist wildlife resources and all-terrain vehicles are also at the scene.

A spokesperson for the Irish Defence Forces said they had "deployed an Augusta Westland AW139 and a Eurocoptor EC135 to the area".

The aircraft have been used to support the Irish Fire Service to fight gorse fires in the Republic of Ireland during the past 10 days.

"Augusta Westland AW139 helicopters are equipped with a 'Bambi' bucket aerial firefighting system capable of dropping 1200 litres of water per pass. This amount of water, concentrated in a small areas, makes an immediate impact on wildfires," the spokesperson said.