Helicopter missing in Nepal - UK Charity workers on board.
A helicopter carrying 24 people, including a junior minister and charity workers from Britain, has disappeared in Nepal.
Two employees from the UK branch of wildlife charity the WWF were among the passengers on the helicopter.
Also on board were junior forest minister Gopal Rai, his wife and three senior government officials. A WWF spokesman said seven of its employees from around the world were on board the missing helicopter.
The number includes the two from the UK branch, who are believed to be of Australian and Canadian nationalities.
The spokesman said: "We have been informed that a helicopter carrying seven WWF employees has gone missing in Nepal.
"We have also received reports that the search for the helicopter is being hampered by bad weather. "Two of the employees are from WWF-UK."
Reports from Nepal said the helicopter lost radio contact during bad weather after taking off on a 20-minute flight from the district of Taplejung. The helicopter party was returning from a ceremony to hand over a conservation area from the government to the local community when it went missing.
Airport officials co-ordinating the search and rescue operation said so far there was no trace of the missing Russian-made M1-17 helicopter. Ambar Bahadur Shakya said: "We fear an unfortunate incident may have occurred. We have sent two helicopters for search operations because we have reports that weather is improving."
Two earlier search helicopters were turned back by bad weather and ground teams were deployed to the remote and mountainous area.
