Two US Army soldiers were killed when an Apache military helicopter crashed into a field in Texas on Wednesday, sparking a large grass fire, officials said.

The accident occurred in Bell County, about 60 miles (100 km) north of the state capital, Austin, according to Cliff Coleman, a spokesperson for the Bell County Sheriff's Office.

The Bell County justice of the peace declared two people who had been on board dead, Coleman said.

"Today, an Apache helicopter crashed in Bell County during Fort Hood operations, killing two members of our military," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on X.

Fort Hood confirmed that an AH-64 attack helicopter had crashed and that two soldiers had died, but withheld their identities pending notification of their families.

Images provided by Coleman showed firefighters examining burning debris amid a large area of charred grass, with smoke billowing from the scene. Several local fire departments responded to the blaze, he said.Could not auto-import the full article from Reuters. Open the original article, copy the text, paste it here, then run Blitz Rewrite.