A Mil Mi-8 helicopter belonging to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry with three people on board crashed into a lake in the northern republic of Karelia, the ministry said today, adding that underwater searches are underway.

The helicopter was performing a “training flight”, the ministry said via Telegram, specifying that the crew was highly “experienced” and had “thousands of hours of flight time”.

Wreckage of the helicopter, which disappeared from radar late Sunday night, was spotted 11 kilometres from the shore of Lake Onega, the second largest in Europe, at a depth of about 50 metres, according to the ministry.

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Divers and a remote-controlled unmanned underwater vehicle are involved in the search, according to the same source, who did not clarify whether the crew members were dead or alive.

Karelia is divided between Finland and northwestern Russia, between the White Sea and the Baltic Sea, where the Mi-8 crashed.