19 January,2009 08:53 AM IST | | Agencies
At least seven French soldiers have died and one remained missing after an army transport helicopter crashed off the coast of Gabon, officials said Sunday.
The Cougar helicopter was carrying 10 soldiers, including six special forces paratroopers, when it went down shortly after take-off from the French carrier La Foudre on Saturday during military exercises with the west African country.
The French military earlier announced that rescuers had pulled three survivors and a body from sea. However one survivor died in hospital in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, the French army said.
Divers later found the bodies of several missing soldiers and pulled them from the wreckage, located early Sunday at a depth of 35 metres (115 feet), the French government said.
