A helicopter carrying a Nepali minister along with high government officials, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) staffers diplomats as well as prominent personalities of Nepal went missing Saturday morning.

"The helicopter leaving for district headquarters of Taplejujg from remote Ghumsa village of the same district, some 600 km east of Kathmandu, lost contact at 9 a.m. local time, local Kantipur F. M. a privately run radio reported, quoting Hem Nath Dawadi, Chief District Officer ( CDO) of Taplejung.

As many as 24 persons including Forest Minister Gopal Rai, his wife, Damodar Parajuli, secretary at the forest ministry, Pauli Mustonen Charge d'Affaires, Embassy of Finland, Margaret Alexander of the United States Agency for International Development and WWF staffers were on board of the helicopter of Shree Airlines, a private company.

Mingma N Sherpa of WWF-US, Jill Bowling and Jennifer Headley of WWF- Britain, media people related to Nepal Television, four members of crew along with prominent personalities were traveling on the helicopter.

"The local people of Ghumsa told the authority that they heard a sound of big explosion right after the helicopter took off from the village," the radio reported. " So, the chopper might have crashed."

The search operation of the missing operation has been halted until Sunday morning as job could not carried out due to bad weather condition.

Source: Xinhua