Russia joins Armenia in mourning

Relatives have been identifying the first bodies recovered

Armenia and Russia have begun public mourning for 113 people feared killed when an airliner crashed into the Black Sea near the Russian city of Sochi.

Most of the dead were Armenians on a flight from Yerevan, and the small Caucasus republic is holding two days of mourning while Russia will hold one.

Moscow has appealed for foreign help to retrieve the Armenian Airbus A320's flight recorders.

Signals suggest they have been located at a depth of 680m (2,200ft).

The important thing is to be able to bury the victims so that there is a place where you can go to cry Arman Davtian brother of victim

The search for bodies is continuing, with 50 retrieved as of Friday morning. Of these, 41 have been identified - 31 of them Armenians and 10 Russians.

The 105 passengers included 26 Russian nationals, and six children were also aboard.

While the cause of the crash is not known, officials say bad weather at the time may have brought it down as it tried to make a second landing attempt.

It reportedly hit the sea at an angle of 60 degrees, 6km from the coast near Adler airport, just outside Sochi.

DNA tests

Flags are flying at half-mast in Armenia and Russia and public entertainment events have been cancelled as a mark of respect for the dead.

TV channels in Russia have changed their schedules to drop entertainment programmes on Friday, Itar-Tass news agency reports.

Russia is preparing to fly the first identified bodies to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on Friday on a transport plane while a passenger plane will take back bereaved relatives.

DNA samples have been taken from relatives who did not find their loved ones' remains, in the hope of identification at a later stage, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass.

"The tests will be done by Russian experts at a request by the Armenian side," he added.

Correspondents reported scenes of anguish in Sochi and Yerevan.

"The victims' bodies are unrecognisable, horribly disfigured - a mother wouldn't know her own son," one young man looking for his brother-in-law's body told AFP news agency in Yerevan.

Another young man, Arman Davtian, had just returned from Sochi where the remains of his brother had been identified.

"I hope that all the other families can recover the bodies," he said.

"The important thing is to be able to bury the victims so that there is a place where you can go to cry."