Armenian airliner crashes near Russia

MOSCOW - Rescue workers have found the first body after an Armenian Airlines aircraft carrying 113 people crashed into the Black Sea, Russian media have reported.

The aircraft was on a flight from Yerevan to the Russian seaside resort of Sochi. 

Interfax news agency quoted its source as saying rescuers had found baggage, body parts, pieces of the shattered plane and floating oil at the site.

Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov was quoted as saying the plane was an Airbus 320 and had vanished from radar screens at 2.15 am (10.15am NZT) near Sochi, a Russian resort near the Georgian border.

He said the plane was carrying at least five children, and that difficult weather conditions were complicating the search for survivors.

The ministry gave no reason for the crash.

- REUTERS