Air search for crashed space ship

Russian authorities are using helicopters to search for the wreckage of an unmanned supply ship that crashed and exploded in a forest in Siberia.

Russia's General Prosecutor's Office said today about 40 lumberjacks were working in the thick forest of the Choisky region in Russia's Altai province where the Progress ship blew up yesterday.

It said that "individuals gathering pine nuts" may have been in the area where emergency workers are looking for the crash site and wreckage amid thick fog.

The ship was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan some 900 miles south west of the crash site. It fell after the third stage of its booster rocket failed a few minutes into the launch.

PA