TBILISI, Oct 8: Nine people, including five UN observers and their interpreter, died on Monday when rebels shot down a helicopter in Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia, a senior Abkhazian official said.

UN staff killed were from Germany, France, Switzerland and Pakistan, Russian news agencies said.

The mission’s Hungarian-born chief Laszlo Torok was also among the dead, according to UN sources.

The Mi-8 helicopter, with the UN team and three crew aboard, set off from Sukhumi airport at around 9:00 am Moscow time (0500 GMT) and was shot down 15 minutes later over a region known to be a stronghold of Georgian and Chechen rebels.

The helicopter came down over Abkhazia’s Kodori gorge, “from territory which is under the control of Georgian and Chechen guerrillas,” said Vyacheslav Ankvab, described as Abkhazia’s deputy defence minister.

Abkhazia has claimed de facto independence from the rest of the Caucasian republic of Georgia since 1993 after fighting a war in the early 1990s in which the separatists were supported by Moscow.

“So far, we have been unable to recover the victims’ remains and bring them to (Abkhazian capital) Sukhumi, as rescuers are having a hard time working in the mountains,” Ankvab added.

A Georgian interpreter with the UN mission was also killed, as were the three Ukrainian crew members, Russian agencies said.

Earlier, the Georgian defence minister had warned of a possible attack by up to 1,000 Georgians and Chechen rebels, the Interfax news agency reported.

Around 500 fighters under Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev were preparing to mount a joint attack with a 500-strong force advancing on Abkhazia from Georgia’s Pankissky gorge, according to Abkhaz officials.

Abkhazian separatist troops used artillery and armoured cars last week to repel an armed group of Chechens and Georgians who seized a local village.

The Monday incident involving the helicopter was the worst attack so far aimed at the UN’s mission, which has had 106 military observers on the ground since a precarious ceasefire was signed in May 1994.—AFP