SEVEN people have been injured after a hot air balloon burst into flames and crashed in the Alpine foothills in Switzerland.
The hot air balloon reportedly caught fire shortly after take-off and plummeted to the ground in Hünenberg on Saturday morning.
Firefighters raced to the scene in the Mattenboden area shortly after 6 am.
Four women and three men between the ages of 28 and 64 were in the basket at the time of the horrific crash, police said.
Three of the passengers – two women and one man – were seriously injured, while the other four suffered minor injuries.
They were all rushed to hospital.
Photographs from the scene showed thick black smoke billowing into the sky from the fiery wreckage of the balloon.