ASTANA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A private helicopter crashed in the southern Kazakh city of Almaty on Thursday, killing its pilot, authorities said.

The crash occurred in the open territory of a sanatorium in the city's Nauryzbai district at 4:05 p.m. local time (1005 GMT) and the aircraft was identified as a Eurocopter EC 130 from the airline Sky Service, according to the Committee for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan.

The helicopter was following the route from Boralday to Big Almaty Lake when it crashed and the pilot on board, who was born in 1968, died in the ambulance, the committee said.