A helicopter carrying United Nations disaster relief officials crashed in Mongolia today killing nine people. Fourteen people were injured, 10 of them critically.
A Russian-made MI-8 helicopter spun out of control about 50 metres off the ground, crashed and exploded in flames in north-western Mongolia, according to a Mongolian civil defence official.
Four members of a UN disaster assessment team were killed: a Briton, an American, a German and a Mongolian, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
Their names would be released after relatives were notified.
Eckhard said the crash killed three other Mongolians - a member of parliament, a photographer and a helicopter technician - and two Japanese journalists. Japan's Kyodo news agency said one of them worked in the China bureau of Japanese broadcaster NHK.
China's official XinhuaNews Agency identified the politician who was killed as S H Otgonbileg and said the crash was being investigated by a panel headed by Mongolia's defence minister, Jugderdemidiin Gurragchaa.
The American who was killed worked for Unicef in Mongolia, the German was a desk officer at the UN in Geneva, and the Mongolian employee worked for the UN Population Fund, Eckhard said.
The civil defence official, who uses one name, Batchuluun, said the plane was carrying eight UN representatives, at least two Mongolian government officials and an undetermined number of Japanese and Mongolian reporters.
The injured were taken to a local hospital.
The helicopter crashed near Malchin in Mongolia's north-western corner, about 600 miles from the capital, Ulan Bator.
Eckhard said the UN representatives were part of a team assessing the effects of punishing weather patterns in advance of a visit planned for later this week by acting UN humanitarian relief coordinator Carolyn McAskie.
Two years of summer drought followed by heavy snows have taken a heavy toll on Mongolia's livestock, which represent about 80% of the economy in the largely nomadic country between China and Russia.
McAskie had planned to travel to Mongolia on Tuesday but moved the trip to tomorrow after learning of the crash, Eckhard said.
She was to due to appeal on Friday for international aid to alleviate the effects of the weather but that might be postponed, he added. AP