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[Lex]

An Israeli military helicopter with six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian on board has crashed in central Romania, the country's defence ministry says.

Spokesman Constantin Spanu said the CH-53 transport helicopter had come down near the town of Zarnesti, about 120km (75 miles) north-west of Bucharest.

Local media say there have been fatalities, but this was not confirmed.

Initial reports had said US military personnel were on board the aircraft, which was taking part in an exercise.

Romanian and Israeli troops are participating in Blue Sky 2010, an 11-day exercise during which they are practising flying at low altitude for search and rescue missions.

Mr Spanu said the CH-53 had lost radio contact in the middle of the afternoon, and that rescue crews were on their way to the crash site.

Witnesses in the city of Brasov told the Antena 3 television station that they had seen three helicopters flying towards the Leaota and Bucegi mountains when smoke suddenly started coming out of one of them.

The Israeli military old the Associated Press only that it was looking into the reports of the crash.

On 18 July, Romania's defence ministry said an Israeli CH-53 participating in Blue Sky 2010 had crash landed after "sensing a failure aboard".

BBC News,
26 July 2010 Last updated at 17:12 GMT