SHIMSHI AIR BASE (KHARAN), Jan 10: Five US helicopters participated in the day-long search for the wreckage of the US air tanker KC-130 which crashed in the Lora Range 25km from here on Wednesday evening.

The local authorities of Kharan District conducted their part of the search operation, but in vain.

At a distance of merely 500 metres on Thursday afternoon US choppers could be seen trying to locate the crash in the Lora Range, a difficult mountainous range, some 500km southwest of Quetta.

Master Ilahi Bakhsh, a resident of Shimshi village, said he had seen furious flames in the Lora Range around 8.30pm on Wednesday which continued to burn until midnight.

Abdul Rahim, who owns a herd of camels, said: “US war planes were seen in the sky above Shimshi all night,” Abdul Rahim claimed.

Since newsmen were allowed inside the Shimshi air base and were made to stay in the open they were able to see US warplanes, including giant B-52 bombers and KC-130s, headed for Afghanistan.