According to a report by BNO News, the helicopter sent a distress signal and then disappeared from flight-tracking platforms

Spokesman Christian Lindmeier said that WHO experts and Russian health authorities were collaborating to verify the event and its circumstances

Earlier, rumors circulated online that an employee of an anti-plague institute in the Irkutsk Region had allegedly been diagnosed with plague. The information was not confirmed

The group has taken control of much of the Red Sea coast.