Pilot "steered helicopter from crowds" before Beijing crash

BEIJING (Reuters) - A civilian helicopter crashed into a parking lot in the Chinese capital on Monday after the pilot managed to steer the aircraft away from crowded areas, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily said.

No one on the ground was injured, Beijing police said on Chinese social network Weibo. Four people onboard suffered minor injuries.

Bell Helicopter told Reuters the helicopter was a Bell 429 aircraft owned by Reignwood Star Aviation, adding it was investigating the cause of the crash.

A Reignwood representative told Reuters the Civil Aviation Administration of China was also investigating.

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Nick Macfie)