India search for missing helicopter

A big search is under way in India for a military helicopter missing in Gujarat state, near the border with Pakistan.

The Indian airforce, army and police are searching a large area of marshy and desert terrain in the Kutch region which adjoins Pakistan.

The helicopter took off on Sunday from the town of Kateshwar with eight border security force personnel and four crew aboard.

Pakistan has been informed of the search, but the BBC South-east Asia correspondent says there's no suggestion yet that Pakistan is in any way involved in the helicopter's disappearance. In August last year India shot down a Pakistani naval surveillance aircraft in the same border region, killing all sixteen people on board.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service