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Death toll in Chechnya copter crash reaches 20

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Twenty bodies have now been found at the scene of a Russian transport helicopter crash in southern Chechnya, raising the death toll from the previously reported 18, a local security source said Friday.
MOSCOW, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - Twenty bodies have now been found at the scene of a Russian transport helicopter crash in southern Chechnya, raising the death toll from the previously reported 18, a local security source said Friday.

"Investigators working at the scene have found 20 bodies, all severely burned due to a fire and explosion that apparently followed the crash," the source said.

Three helicopters carrying troops were sent to augment a federal task force fighting gunmen near the village of Shatoi, 30 miles south of the capital Grozny, earlier Friday.

One Mi-8 Hip transport helicopter was downed by automatic rifle fire as it approached the target area, killing everyone on board in what is apparently the second-deadliest attack on a federal helicopter in Chechnya in recent years, after the downing of a heavy Mi-26 Halo helicopter August 19, 2002, in which 127 on board were killed.

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