Rescuers retrieved six bodies from the sea off the Tuscan port of Leghorn Tuesday after a military helicopter crashed overnight, police said.
Two people were still missing.
The helicopter carrying seven carabinieri police and one civilian went down for as yet unknown reasons about 500 meters (yards) off the island of Capraia, between the Italian mainland and Corsica.
The flight caused controversy Tuesday after reports that the aircraft transported an unruly city police officer said to have beaten a carabinieri in an argument.
But Leghorn carabinieri commander Colonel Ermanno Meluccio said that conditions for the flight were right.
Rescue operations were hampered by stormy seas and the depth of the water near the island from where the AB-412 helicopter had taken off -- ROME (AFP)
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