A number of people died after an helicopter made an hard landing in Russia's far eastern region of Kamchatka, state news agency TASS reported, citing an emergency services source.
"According to preliminary data, during a hard landing of the helicopter, eight people were killed, the remaining eight were rescued. The helicopter sank," TASS cited the source as saying early on Thursday.
Later the agency cited Marina Volkova, the Kamchatka Territory's deputy minister of health, as saying that nine people survived.
The Mi-8 helicopter was believed to have 13 tourists and three crew members on board when it made the hard landing.
"Information on the rest of the tourists and crew members is being investigated," Volkova was cited as saying.
13 tourists, 3 crew members
TASS cited EMERCOM as telling reporters that at 00:50 Moscow time Thursday it received information about "a hard landing of the Mi-8 helicopter of the Vityaz-Aero company in the area of the Kuril Lake of the Kronotsky Reserve."
"Presumably, the helicopter belongs to the Vityaz-Aero airline, there were 13 tourists and 3 crew members on board. Aircraft of this airline is about to take off from the airport in the village of Nikolaevka to clarify the details of what happened," the press service of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve was quoted as saying.
