Chopper carrying UN staff crashes in Nepal, 10 dead
03 Mar 2008 18:23:43 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds latest comment from United Nations) KATHMANDU, March 3 (Reuters) - Ten people were killed when a helicopter carrying United Nations officials crashed in bad weather over hilly terrain near Nepal's capital on Monday, police and airport officials said. A police officer in Kathmandu said 10 bodies had been recovered. The helicopter was carrying seven U.N. personnel and three crew, a spokeswoman at the U.N. headquarters in New York said. It was flying U.N. officials on an arms monitoring mission at the camps of former Maoist rebels who joined the government after a landmark peace deal in 2006. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had expressed his "great sorrow" after learning of the crash, U.N. spokeswoman Michel Montas said. The helicopter went missing on its way to Kathmandu from Sindhuli, about 65 km (40 miles) from the Nepali capital. "Police have already reached the site," Ramesh Mahat, an airport official, said. "It is raining there." The U.N. Mission in Nepal said local authorities had told it that the helicopter had been found and that there were fatalities. It has sent a party by road to the site to seek additional information. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma and Louis Charbonneau; Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee; Editing by Keith Weir)
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