Teams recover Nepal crash bodies

Rescuers in Nepal have recovered the bodies of 24 people killed in a helicopter crash, officials say.

Bad weather at the crash site near a remote eastern village had prevented rescue operations since the weekend.

It is not clear what caused the crash, one of the worst in Nepal's history. A day of mourning is being observed.

The aircraft, chartered by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), was carrying senior conservationists. The bodies were flown to Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Retrieving bodies

All government offices, schools and Nepalese embassies abroad were closed on Wednesday and the national flag flew at half mast to mourn the deaths.

The helicopter went missing on Saturday and rescuers spotted its wreckage in Taplejung district on Sunday evening.

On Wedensday an army helicopter flew the bodies, many damaged beyond recognition, to the capital.

State-run television showed live pictures of troops unloading the remains at Katmandu airport, from where the bodies were taken for post mortems and identification.

A temporary helipad was constructed near the crash site to help retrieve the bodies.

"Rescuers have collected pieces of bodies in bags from the steep slopes and are carrying them down," Reuters news agency quoted local police inspector Mahendra Shrestha as saying earlier on Wednesday.

"It will take a couple of hours for the rescuers to carry the remains of the bodies to the place where helicopters can land and then they will be taken to Kathmandu."

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the terrain was as big a problem as the weather. The landscape around Taplejung is dominated by cliffs and gorges and forests so thick that helicopters cannot drop ropes to the ground.

The bodies of the 24 victims were lowered by rope systems down the mountains before being taken to the capital.

'Bang'

The private Shree Airlines helicopter crashed minutes after it took off from Ghunsa in Taplejung.

The aircraft was carrying seven WWF employees - four Nepalis, an Australian, a Canadian and an American.

It was also carrying a Finnish diplomat, a US aid worker and two Russian crew members, as well as Nepalese officials and reporters.

WWF chief James Leape said the deaths were the biggest single loss of life in the organisation's 45-year-old history.

Nepal's government has ordered an inquiry into what caused the crash.

Reports quote local people as saying they heard a loud bang shortly after the helicopter took off.

The helicopter party was returning from a landmark ceremony to hand over the Kanchenjunga conservation area from the government to the local community.

The helicopter, identified as a Russian-made Mi-172, had been on a 20-minute flight to a local airport, where the passengers had been due to take a flight to Kathmandu.