A former Russian biathlon star-turned pilot and two wealthy Russian tourists on a £4,250 sightseeing trip were killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday, before being dragged away and gnawed by bears, according to reports.

Ex-sportsman Igor Malinovskii, 25, was piloting a Robinson helicopter in the popular tourist region of Kamchatka when it came down on July 16.

Communications were lost with the helicopter due to bad weather. It is believed to have caught fire as it crashed the the ground.

Remains of tourists eaten by bears

Two of passengers - who were on an elite tourist trip - were named as well-known businesswoman Zoya Kaygorodova, in her mid-30s, and Sergey Kolesnyak, a mobile phone company executive at company Tele2. He was 39.

Rescuers found the charred remains of the helicopter - named Nadezhda, or Hope - in the Valley of the Geysers in the Kamchatka peninsula, in the far east of Russia.

The wreckage was discovered on July 17, a day after the crash, and some eight miles away from the Uzon volcano. Pictures showed mangled metal and scorched earth at the site where the helicopter crashed.

'The remains of dead tourists after the crash of a Robinson helicopter in Kamchatka were dragged away by bears,' said 5TV channel, citing local sources.

Human remains were reported to have been found away from the crash site.

The tourists were part of a group on a £4,250 trip to Kamchatka, a bear-infested peninsula famous for volcanoes, geysers and glaciers - and its picturesque landscape. Kaygorodova had organised the trip.

Crash site in a region densely populated by bears

The region has one of the highest density of brown bears on the planet, with an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 of the predators living in the peninsula, which is about the same size as California.

The whole region was one densely populated with the bears, but they have now been pushed out to the more remote and rural areas.

The bears usually eat fish, plants, insects and other smaller animals, and don't usually seek out humans to eat. However, bears are opportunistic hunters and therefore make the most of whatever food that's available to them.