A helicopter carrying tourists crashed into a volcanic lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's far east Thursday, and rescuers were searching in the lake for up to eight people still missing, officials said. At least eight others reportedly survived. The helicopter went down in the Kronotsky nature reserve, and the regional administration said workers were searching for survivors in Kuril Lake, which was formed in a volcano caldera and crater.

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said 13 tourists and three crew members were aboard the Mi-8 helicopter when it plunged into the lake and eight people survived, according to the state RIA Novosti news agency. It said two of them were heavily injured. The Interfax news agency, however, cited officials as saying the helicopter was carrying three crew members and 14 tourists when it went down in deep fog. It said nine people, including two pilots, survived the crash, and the others were missing and feared dead.