A number of members of a leading Russian professional ice hockey team have died in a plane crash.
Lokomotiv players die as plane crashes on take-off
Ice hockey suffered its "darkest day" on Wednesday after several members of the Russian team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl died in a plane crash.
The Yak-42 aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Tunoshna airport near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River north-east of Moscow.
Forty-three of the 45 people on board died.
International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel said: "Despite the substantial air travel of professional hockey teams, our sport has been spared from tragic traffic accidents.
"But only until now. This is the darkest day in the history of our sport. This is not only a Russian tragedy, the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from 10 nations."
Survivors
Authorities have not confirmed the identities of any of the dead, but the official website of the Kontinental Hockey League said the two survivors were player Alexander Galimov and Alexander Sizov, a member of the flight crew.
It is not yet known whether the complete squad had been on board the plane, but the KHL website said that newly-appointed Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon, a former NHL star, and two members of the Czech Republic's World Championship-winning squad of last year, Jan Marek and Josef Vasicek, were among the dead.
Lokomotiv play in the KHL, which comprises clubs from former Soviet-bloc countries and is regarded as one of the strongest ice hockey competitions in Europe.
Lokomotiv finished third in the KHL last season and were heading to the Belarus capital Minsk, where they were due to contest their first game of the new season against Dinamo on Thursday.
