HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government has appealed to the people to help search the Chief Minister YSR Reddy whose helicopter went missing this morning.

“Seven choppers have been sent to look for the CM,” a state government statement said. All sources have now confirmed that the CM and his chopper are missing. As per reports, there has been no contact with Reddy since 9.35 am. Home Ministry sources said there had been no contact yet with the CM or his pilot. Sources said that air operations were on to try and sight any landing and priority shifts to ground search and rescue. The Home Ministry expressed concerns about the CM’s safety because the forest where the chopper is believed to have made an emergency landing is a Naxal area. Apart from YSR Reddy and two pilots, the CM’s chief security officer and a senior IAS officer were also on board the helicopter. The CM took off at 8.30 am from Hyderabad. He was headed to Chittoor for a function and was scheduled to land at 10.45 am. It has been raining very heavily in Andhra Pradesh. Earlier this afternoon, there were reports that the CM had landed in a forest 45 minutes from Kurnool.

The Andhra government at that time said it did not want to give details on the location of the landing because this is an area where Naxals are very active.