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Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, has been speaking to the BBC. She has called for an "inquiry into the increasing numbers of helicopters flying around London" among so many new high-rise buildings.
"The river is a kind of motorway for helicopters, but the noise of course is horrendous sometimes, when we get a lot of helicopters hovering," she said. "Maybe we've come to take it almost for granted that people have the right to take their helicopter over London at any time and I think we may have to look at that."
Reader Chris Jones has sent this picture of The Tower on St George Wharf. He writes: " Can you see any lights on this tower or the crane – and how high above the tower the jib is elevated"?
The retired construction professional suggested that lights should have been visible "as air traffic close to the heliport is foreseeable".
A workmate of a man who was supposed to be in the crane when the helicopter struck, but was in fact on the ground, has told the BBC that he was going to play the lottery because he felt so lucky.
The owners of Battersea Heliport have confirmed that the pilot of the helicopter had requested to divert and land at Battersea shortly before the crash because of bad weather.
Updated
The pilot of the helicopter which crashed in central London had requested to divert and land at London Heliport at Battersea due to bad weather, a spokesman for the owners of the heliport said today
Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey has said the crash should lead to a review of helicopter flights over the capital.
"You just have to think how dreadful it would have been had the helicopter landed on the huge apartments at the side of the road. We could have been facing a catastrophe," she told BBC News.
"The river is the motorway for helicopters. We are always going to need some helicopter use ... But I think maybe we have to come to take it almost for granted that people have the right to take their helicopter over London at any time. We may have to look at that."
Hoey said she had opposed the building of the 22-storey St George development.
"We do need to recognise that having a different skyline in London means that things may have to be different about who can go where. The regulations are very clear about helicopters not to be flown less than 500ft from structures and so on."
The details of the second death in the crash remains unclear, with police seemingly hesitant to give further information before next of kin are informed. At the moment we only know that the pilot of the helicopter was killed; the other fatality was in "close proximity to the helicopter".
Updated
Eyewitness Nic Walker said the helicopter crashed on to the street outside his house, setting a car on fire.
He said: "I was awake in bed and heard a helicopter. I was aware of some funny sounds and then a loud engine noise, then a huge bang.
"I flung open my window and looked out to see fire across the street. I pulled on some clothes and ran out to help.
"There were two people injured on my side of the fire. I think one was a motorcyclist. One seemed to have an eye or brow injury.
"I ran down with a guy to check the car. No driver but we couldn't get close enough to see the back.
"I took a guy down to check the car was empty but had to pull back from fire and explosions.
"That car was later gutted by the fire. There were secondary explosions going on so we had to get back. It was smokey as hell too."
He added: "The crane operator was about to go up. The scaffolders evacuated to here told me there isn't a crane big enough in the UK to get the wreckage down."
Police believe the plane, which took off from Redhill, was on its way to Elstree in north London when it was diverted.
Updated
A spokesman for the London mayor, Boris Johnson, said: "This is clearly a major incident involving considerable numbers of emergency service personnel.
"The mayor's thoughts are with the families of the two victims and with those injured.
"The mayor has spoken with Met police commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe and transport commissioner Peter Hendy.
"He remains in close touch with all his commissioners and he will continue to monitor the situation closely."
Updated
The St George Wharf development, site of the crane which was hit by the helicopter, is 22 storeys high. More detail here.
David Cameron's official spokesman said: "Clearly the prime minister
is very saddened to learn of the fatalities and injuries in this
accident."
is very saddened to learn of the fatalities and injuries in this
accident."
There were currently no plans for a statement in the House of Commons,
and investigations would be led by the "usual agencies", said the
spokesman in a daily briefing to political reporters.
and investigations would be led by the "usual agencies", said the
spokesman in a daily briefing to political reporters.
Met Police commander Neil Basu is answering questions about the crash. He confirms there were two fatalities and nine wounded. One of the fatalities was the pilot, the other was in the proximity of where the aircraft came down.
Police were called by a member of the public at 8am, he says.
Of the wounded, five were taken to hospital, and four were treated on the scene but did not require hospital treatment.
No one was working on the crane at the time of the crash. Asked whether the warning light on top of the crane was not working properly, Basu says that will form part of the investigation.
The helicopter was a commercial flight which took off in Surrey.
St George's Wharf is part of the Nine Elms development in south-west London.
Updated
The police have now said there was only one person in the helicopter. The other fatality was in the proximity of where the helicopter came down.
Updated
London Fire Brigade station manager Bruce Grain says he has been told two people were on board the helicopter, contrary to earlier reports, which said one.
He said one person was trapped in a vehicle by debris from the crash, but was freed before the brigade arrived.
Updated
PA has highlighted the role of Twitter and other social media in reporting the crash.
"News of the accident began breaking on social media websites, and within minutes users had begun posting tweets, pictures and video.
The hashtags #helicopter and #vauxhall began trending as users began using the web to report witness accounts and their condolences as the situation became clear.
One Twitter user wrote: "Passed by #helicopter crash scene in #vauxhall, horrible. Could've been a lot worse if crashed on station or railway."
Another said: "Jesus, just saw a helicopter crash into a crane on top of St George Tower in Vauxhall. Knocked the top of the crane off. Hope no one's hurt."
One user posted a picture of the tower, with dark black smoke billowing into the sky, and wrote: "Helicopter just hit a crane and crashed a few metres in front of me in vauxhall. Completely shaken."
Other pictures posted online showed emergency services vehicles surrounding a large fire. Footage shot on a mobile phone showed an entire road blocked by burning wreckage and aviation fuel.
A spokesman for Gatwick later said the helicopter had not flown from the Sussex airport, contrary to earlier reports.
London Fire Brigade said its fire boat was doing precautionary checks of the River Thames.
Plenty of people are saying it was fortunate there were not more fatalities given the location of the crash, near a supermarket, bus station and rail line into Waterloo. The shift on the St George's Wharf site was due to begin at 8am.
This from ismoore who commented on this story this morning.
"Living in the area, I have to say that it has been lucky that the number of casualties have been low considering the location. It is next to a disused petrol station, the bridge you see is a busy rail line into waterloo, just the other side of that bridge is a large supermarket, itself with a petrol station (and we are talking no more than 50 metres), the road itself is usually very congested at that time of the morning in that area.
"It is very densely populated with large housing estates on either side of the road, and the St Georges Wharf estate has a very high population.
There is also New Covent Garden, which will be busy at that time of the morning with traders."
There is also New Covent Garden, which will be busy at that time of the morning with traders."
Updated
A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said four patients were treated at the scene for shock.
He said: "We have treated five patients for minor injuries and three of them were taken to St Thomas's Hospital and two - a man and a woman - were taken to King's College Hospital.
"We are treating four patients on scene for shock."
From the Guardian's James Walsh, this photo was taken this morning and gives good indication of the conditions leading up to the crash.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said the helicopter had been diverted to Battersea helipad, which was not its original intended destination.
He said: "It is a shock and we are treating it as a major incident."
Updated
In a Met police update, they say they are aware of 11 casualties, reports the Guardian's Lisa O'Carroll. Here's the statement
"Two people have been confirmed dead at the scene. We have no further
details.
details.
"One person has been taken to a south London hospital in a critical
condition.
condition.
"Three people suffering minor injuries have been taken to south London
hospitals.
hospitals.
"Five people have been treated at the scene for minor injuries."
Updated
Helicopter routes in London tend to follow the Thames - it is called route H4 - so they can ditch into the river if they get into trouble.
The fact the crash took place so close to the river suggests the pilot may have following the river route.
However, there are questions about why it was flying so low - possibly because of the fog, which meant the pilot had to rely on references to ground features, reports Sky News.
Updated
The Guardian's Shiv Malik reports from the scene of the crash where an eyewitness describes seeing the crane ripped in half "like a piece of paper".
"Sharon Moore, 36, a mother of five, who was taking her eight-year-old daughter, Tiah, to school for her breakfast club, said she saw the event unfold. She lives on the Wyvil Estate around 50m from the scene of the crash.
“We were talking to a neighbour and something attracted us [to the sky]. It was like, have you ever seen a car and it's swerving because it doesn't know which way to turn and it panics an that's exactly what it looked like.”
She said the top of St George's was obscured in fog. “It [the helicopter] couldn't see the way it was supposed to be going it tried to turn but it didn't make it and it ripped the scaffolding [crane] in half like a piece of paper. But you could see the helicopter was distressed before it got to the building. We were watching it unfolding.”
“You couldn't see the light on the top [of the building]. It was like it [ the helicopter] was blinded. You could see that it didn't know which way to turn and it just sliced in to the building. And it sounded like – you know that sound when someone drags their nails down a blackboard but it was even worse. I was like a screeching...It was slicing into the metal of the tower.”
She said the chopper fell to the ground instantly. “It just dropped. You know, its like when you just let go of something it just dropped.”
“The other half of the crane fell, that was the second bang. There were four bangs, the helicopter, the crane then two cars exploded. It was horrendous.
She said it took minutes for the police to arrive.
Updated
London Fire Brigade station manager Bruce Grain, one of first firefighters at the scene, said it "was absolute chaos" but he revealed the fire was put out within 20 minutes.
Eight fire engines, four fire rescue units and around 60 firefighters plus officers attended the scene of the crash, a few hundred yards from MI6, on a busy road.
Firefighters rescued a man from a burning car and brought a blaze caused by the crash under control.
Four fire engines and two fire rescue units also attended reports of a crane in a precarious position. The brigade was called at 8am.
The crane was on top of a building called The Tower in the St George Wharf development, and is billed as one of Europe's tallest residential towers.
The aircraft is understood to be an AgustaWestland AW109, a lightweight, twin-engine helicopter with eight seats.
Data on helicopter flights over London, from Guardian deputy editor Ian Katz. Find the link here.
Interesting data on helicopter flights over Londonhttp://bit.ly/X5Xovg
Updated
Further reports from the scene suggest the crane operator was running late and not yet on their way up the crane.
A news conference will be held by all the emergency services at 11.30am.
This from the Guardian's Shiv Malik on the scene.
"Sharon Moore, mother of a nine-year-old child, told the Guardian that she witnessed the helicopter in the air in 'a distressed state' as it approached the St George's Wharf development.
"It then slammed into the tower 'slicing into the crane' and then dropped to the ground. She believes she was one of the first to call the police and 'they responded in minutes.'"
Updated
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said there were 11 casualties, with two dead, one person critically ill, and others "less seriously injured".
Updated
A construction worker on the scene said today was the first time he had seen a helicopter flying on the south side of the crane, reports Jill Treanor.
"I heard a big bang. I looked up and I saw the crane was disintegrating," said the construction worker, who did not want to give their name.
"The helicopter was flying towards us (on Vauxhall Bridge Road) and went flying off the building.
"It was the first time I'd seen a helicopter fly this side the crane, they usually fly along the river. I ran for my life. It is the most horrific thing I've ever seen in my life."
Updated
The crane operator was on his way up to the top when the helicopter hit, reports the Guardian's Jill Treanor, who is at the scene of the crash.
"From Vauxhall Bridge the extent of the damage is clear. The arm of the
crane is gone.
crane is gone.
"I'm told the shifts start at 8 and the driver was on his way up - it is 51 storeys - when the helicopter hit."
Updated
Guardian reporter Robert Booth has spoken to an eyewitness who reported seeing the helicopter coming "very fast" from the south-east, hitting the crane and spinning around in a ball of smoke.
Construction worker Rezart Islami said: "I saw the helicopter come from the south-east direction very fast, it just went bang into the crane.
"The crane's arm broke off straight away and the helicopter was sent spinning around in a ball of smoke.
"I ran straight around to see what was happening. It was very worrying. I had never seen anything like this in my life. "
Islami, 28, said the helicopter was black and the top of the crane was completely covered in dense cloud at the time of the collision. The crane's arm was pointing towards the south or south-west, over nearby roads, he said.
Updated
Air investigators will seek answers to a series of key questions as they begin their inquiry into the crash.
There are strict rules governing helicopter flights in the capital and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) team will want to know if proper procedures were followed.
Pilots flying helicopters over London are subject to air traffic control clearance.
If they are flying over central London they must have twin-engined aircraft. Those flying one-engined aircraft must follow the route of the River Thames when operating in the capital.
Visibility over central London was poor enough to cause delays at London City Airport in London Docklands today.
If conditions are poor, helicopters might only be able to operate if the pilot was qualified to fly his aircraft by instruments only.
All those flying helicopters in London would have to follow a set series of routes laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The London heliport is at Battersea in south-west London and there is also a heliport at Ascot in Berkshire.
Updated
Here is a map of helicopter routes over London. Today's crash was near the Battersea helipad.
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