Four naval personnel were feared killed on Friday when a Kamov-28, Navy's submarine hunter helicopter, crashed near Belgaum in Karnataka at around 1200 IST in adverse weather conditions.

One of the survivors managed to call the authorities on his mobile to alert about the crash, a naval spokesman said.

A Dornier aircraft and two naval helicopters along with army teams were pressed into searching operations, the spokesman said.

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He said there were six personnel onboard the helicopter, which was on its way from Goa [Images] to Vishakapatanam via Hyderabad when it crashed in 40 nautical miles northeast of Goa.

The copter took off from the Goa base at 1150 IST and soon after it lost communication links with the tower, he added.

He said so far the fate of the four other people onboard was not known as rains and heavy cloud cover had foiled attempts to reach the spot.