From correspondents in Chhattisgarh, India, 01:30 PM IST

Five days after it went missing with four people on board, the wreckage of a Chhattisgarh government helicopter was found Wednesday in a remote part of Madhya Pradesh, police said.

'The chopper's wreckage was found in a hilly terrain in the interior of Balaghat district. We have recovered the bodies of all four people including two pilots,' Deputy Inspector General of Police G. Janardhan told IANS.

'It seems the helicopter crashed into a hilltop,' he added.

The EC-135 helicopter, Maina, which had flown to Bhopal for mandatory technical checks, lost contact with the air traffic control half an hour after taking off from Bhopal for Raipur at 12.30 p.m. July 14.

Captain A.S. Sidhu and Captain Vikram Savekar were piloting the helicopter and it also carried technician Manish Badania and engineer Amitabh Soni.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)