MOSCOW :
A Russian helicopter carrying nine people, including senior rescue service officials, has crashed in the Irkutsk region of southern Siberia, an official said Monday. "Now rescuers have arrived at the scene and are disembarking beside the wreckage of the helicopter," the region's deputy emergency minister Valentin Nelyubov told the RIA Novosti news agency. On board were nine people, not 10 as initially reported, Nelyubov said.