A helicopter crashed in a busy central district of Panama City yesterday, killing at least 11 people.
Five Panamanians and six Chileans were killed, including Chile's federal police chief, when the helicopter hit a store and exploded. One man survived and is in a stable condition in hospital.
Emergency workers continued to search through rubble, and officials said the body count was likely to rise significantly.
Police chief Gen Jose Alejandro Bernales was one of four senior Chilean security personnel travelling in the helicopter when it crashed and broke in half, the tail end landing on top of a nearby office building.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, although the helicopter was identified as an ageing model from the late 1960s.