Scotland's most senior Catholic has praised what he describes as the Christian spirit of ordinary Glaswegians who rescued people from the wreckage of the helicopter crash at The Clutha pub.

Their actions exemplify Jesus's teaching of "love your neighbour", Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia said during a service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Andrew just 400 metres from the tragedy.

It may have been "a miracle" that the helicopter did not explode and harm more people, he said.

The chaplain of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Father Jim Thomson, said fire crew rescue efforts would have had added "poignancy" because they were fighting to save members of a fellow emergency service in the downed police helicopter.

Archbishop Tartaglia said: "Today we were distressed by the news of last night's incident when the helicopter crashed into the Clutha Vaults pub just 400m from here.

"My heart, and I'm sure your heart, goes out to all those who have been affected by this tragic accident, those who have very sadly lost their lives, those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved.

"When you see these things on television there is usually a huge explosion and a fireball. I don't know whether it was the skill and judgement of the pilot, luck, providence or a miracle, but as the tragedy unfolded I think it might have been two or three times worse if there had been a fire too.

"I had to smile at the reports of Glasgow people not running away from the situation but running to it to try and help others, at stories of people in the pub who had come out and were helping others to come out.

"I thought 'my goodness, this is the spirit of Glasgow. This is the city I am proud of'.

"Jesus said: 'Love your neighbour, love one another as I have loved you'. These profound human values of decency, solidarity and fellow feeling were emerging, and I was grateful for that."

Fr Thomson said: "Because the fire and rescue crews know it was the police helicopter involved there will be certain poignancy there, that it was their colleagues in another emergency service that was involved. But their professionalism will carry them through.

"Everyone is emotional that gets involved in it. But at the time of the incident, firefighters have got try and put that on the back burner so that they can deal with the incident very efficiently."