A Russian army water bomber plane crashed on Saturday, killing all eight people on board, in southern Turkey where it was intervening to put out a fire, authorities in Ankara and Moscow said.
A Turkish aerial surveillance plane and helicopter were dispatched to the scene and confirmed that there were no survivors.
Turkish television channels were broadcasting images showing a column of smoke rising from a mountainous and difficult to access area.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, a large number of rescuers were dispatched to the crash site.
The aircraft, a Beriev-200, had been leased by Russia to the Turkish General Directorate of Forests, which was using it to fight intense fires that have ravaged southern Turkey in recent weeks.
According to Russian agencies, eight people were on board the aircraft: five Russians and three Turks.
The plane crashed for some reason as it had just dropped its cargo of water to put out a fire that had broken out earlier in the Kahramanmaras region, Turkish state television channel TRT reported.
A summer of disasters for Turkey
The incident comes as Turkey has faced a series of natural disasters for several weeks, including fires in the south and flooding in the north.
Eight people died in fires that ravaged the country's southern coast from late July to early August.
Authorities announced this week that most of the outbreaks have been extinguished, but new fires have been reported in recent days, as in Kahramanmaras or Canakkale (west).
These fires have brought to light Turkey's lack of means in terms of aerial firefighting, sparking strong criticism against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara was thus forced to rent several devices to Israel and, therefore, to Russia.
Spain also sent a water bomber plane to help.
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