DEHRADUN, (India): Seven people were killed Tuesday when a helicopter bringing Hindu pilgrims back from a shrine high in the Indian Himalayas crashed in the mountains.

The pilot and all six pilgrims on board died when the chopper came down during the flight from Kedarnath temple, disaster response official Nandan Singh Rajwar told AFP from the crash site.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, Rajwar said.

Kedarnath temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, stands at an altitude of 3,584 metres (around 11,750 feet) in the northern state of Uttarakhand and is thronged by pilgrims from across India in the summer, when access is possible.