Ugandan military helicopter crashes at Somalia's Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu

Three people on board escaped with burns, but five others are "yet to be accounted for", an official say.

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Three people escaped with burns but the other five were "yet to be accounted for" following the crash at the Aden Adde International Airport, Maj Gen Felix Kulaigye said, adding that its cause was still unclear.

"We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke entirely covered the helicopter," Farah Abdulle, one of the airport staff, told Reuters news agency.

Somalia's state-run news agency reported that the fire was quickly contained by the emergency services.

Ugandan troops are part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) force helping the government fight the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for more than two decades.