In Tajikistan, six climbers and a crew member were rescued from the site of a helicopter accident in a remote mountainous region while nine others remain missing after a hard landing.
The Tajik Committee for Emergency Situations said that a rescue helicopter reached the site in the east of the country and brought back the first group of six mountaineers and a crew member of the Mi-8 accident.
It added that two other rescue helicopters were on their way to the site, around 300 kilometres east of the capital Dushanbe.
Earlier authorities said 16 people were feared dead in the accident that took place yesterday. The emergency committee said the group had been climbing the Ismoili Somoni mountain that was once known as Peak Communism and was the highest in the Soviet Union. The statement did not identify the climbers or the crew.
