The crash took place in the forenoon after the pilot reported a technical fault and informed the control tower that he would be making emergency landing, a military spokesman said.

The helicopter came down in the hills of Daud Banda, 40km south of the garrison town of Kohat in the North West Fron|ier Province, the spokesman sail.

The place is some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from a remote tribal region of South Waziristan near the Afghan border where Pakistan's military has been engaged in operations to flush out al-Qaeda linked militants.