A helicopter flying from Italy's Tremiti islands to the mainland crashed on Saturday some 50 kilometres from the city of Foggia, in the southern-east region of Apulia, police said, adding seven people were feared dead in the accident.
A spokeswoman for the police's office in Foggia told Reuters that weather conditions were bad but added that the cause of the accident was still unknown.
Police were working to reach the site, the spokeswoman said, adding that the nationalities of the victims were not clear at the moment.
Four tourists coming from Slovenia were among the victims, several Italian newspapers reported.
The president of Apulia, who was attending a rally in Rome to ask for peace in Ukraine, said in a post on Facebook that he had left the event to go to Foggia.
"On board the helicopter were seven people who all lost their lives. It is a terrible moment that leaves us dismayed," Michele Emiliano said on Facebook.