A rescue helicopter delivering wood for the mass cremations of the victims of flooding in northern India crashed on Tuesday, killing the eight people on board, the government said.
Floods and landslides unleashed by early monsoon rains last week killed at least 680 people in Uttarakhand state and left thousands of people missing.
Government officials fear the toll could cross 1,000 and the rescue operation is still in full swing, with thousands of army personnel involved, supported by air force and private helicopters.
The Indian Air Force helicopter was delivering wood and trying to bring out survivors, many of them Hindu pilgrims and tourists, from inundated areas on the banks of the sacred Ganges river, where houses and apartment blocks were washed away in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The government statement did not say who was on board at the time of the crash, or why the aircraft had come down.
