(Confirms toll at 10, adds description, quotes) KATHMANDU, March 4 (Reuters) - Four United Nations arms monitors were among at least 10 people killed in Monday's helicopter crash in Nepal, officials said on Tuesday. The bodies of the four UN officials from Gambia, Indonesia, South Korea and Sweden, along with three Nepali UN personnel and a three-man crew, have been identified, the United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday. The crew, two Russians and one Belarussian, were flying to Kathmandu from former Maoist rebel camps when the helicopter went down in bad weather about 65 km (40 miles) east of the Nepali capital. A rescue team was bringing back the bodies to Kathmandu. "We certainly aim to see that the bodies are brought to Kathmandu so that we can make arrangements to return them to the families," said Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the UN Mission in Nepal. A Reuters photographer at the crash site saw the wreckage smouldering almost 20 hours after the accident. A part of the helicopter was buried in the ground from the impact. Most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition. "I thought it was a big earthquake," a villager told Reuters, referring to the crash. Nepal's home ministry had earlier said it believed 12 people had died, but put the toll at 10 after a final check. "Two people who were earlier thought to have boarded the plane did not fly," said Modraj Dotel, a spokesman for Nepal's home ministry. "We have found 10 bodies and they are with me," said Chinu Prasad Acharya, a police officer from Bathali, the nearest town to the crash site." (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Jerry Norton)
Aerial view of the crash site in Ramechhap, Kathmandu, March 4, 2008. Ten people were killed when a helicopter carrying United Nations officials crashed in bad weather over hilly terrain near ...
