The unmanned Molniya-M rocket was carrying military equipment
An unmanned Russian rocket carrying a military satellite has crashed to Earth in Siberia soon after its launch, Russian news agencies have reported.
Officials say they believe no one on the ground was hurt when the Molniya-M rocket came down in a thinly populated region of Siberia.

The rocket was launched from the Plesetsk military cosmodrome.

Helicopters were used to search for wreckage from the rocket, a spokesman for the Russian Space forces said.

"The military communications satellite has not been delivered into orbit because the rocket... suffered engine failure," Alexei Kuznetsov, of Russia's military space programme, said.

The Molniya-M lifted off normally, officials said, but the second and third stages failed to separate in the sixth minute and the rocket crashed down into the isolated region of Tyumen.

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