Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Ramakant Reddy said the chief minister, Mr. Y S Rajasekhara Reddy remains untraced after his helicopter went missing amid bad weather on Wednesday morning.

Reddy had left Hyderabad on a chopper at 8.30am for Tirupati accompanied by his secretary and chief security officer but after 9.25am radio contact was lost. This was when the chopper entered the thickly forested, Naxalite-infested Nallamalla hill range where it was raining heavily and visibility was extremely poor.

`So far we have not been able to get any confirmation about the chief minister,` he said.

`It is possible that because of the strong winds and heavy rains, it may have landed in some unfamiliar area,` he said.

`If you land in an unfamiliar forest area, getting out will be very difficult,` he added.

YSR, as the chief minister is known, on Wednesday morning took off in the helicopter from Hyderabad. It went off the radar amid inclement weather.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) joined the search for the missing helicopter carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, pressing four choppers into service, an official said.

`We have deployed four helicopters for the rescue mission. They include two Chetaks, besides one Mi-8 and one ALH (advanced light helicopter),` an IAF spokesman here said.