Helicopter crash kills12

A helicopter belonging to Ukraine's border guards crashed off an island in the Black Sea yesterday, killing 12 of 13 people on board, officials said.

Ihor Krol, a spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry, said one passenger aboard the Mi-8 helicopter, a military workhorse in post-Soviet states, had been rescued off Poludenniy island. The crash occurred in marshland in the delta of the river Danube, southwest of the port of Odessa.

"The helicopter was flying from Odessa to Serpent Island," Mr Krol said by telephone. "It was spotted overturned."

A border guards spokesman later said 12 bodies had been found. All but one of those on board were military officers.