Madagascar minister swims 12 hours to shore after helicopter crash

A Madagascan minister was one of two survivors to have swum some 12 hours to shore Tuesday after their helicopter crashed off the island's northeastern coast, authorities said.

A search was still ongoing for two other passengers after the crash Monday, whose cause was not immediately clear, police and port authorities said.

Serge Gelle, the country's secretary of state for police, and a fellow policeman reached land in the seaside town of Mahambo separately on Tuesday morning, apparently after ejecting themselves from the aircraft, port authority chief Jean-Edmond Randrianantenaina said.

In a video shared on social media, 57-year-old Gelle appears lying exhausted on a deck chair, still in his camouflage uniform.