A US Marines helicopter that crashed into a mountainside in Nepal was completely destroyed and there were no survivors among the eight on board

A US Marines helicopter that crashed into a mountainside in Nepal was completely destroyed and there were no survivors among the eight on board, Nepal's top defense official said on Friday.

Three charred bodies were found in the wreckage of the UH-1Y Huey that went missing on Tuesday while on a mission to deliver aid to victims of two earthquakes, Defence Secretary Ishwori Prasad Paudyal told Reuters.

"The search for others is continuing. As the helicopter has broken into pieces and totally crashed there is no chance of any survivors," said Paudyal, the ministry's top civil servant.

The Marine Corps UH-1Y Huey was spotted near the village of Ghorthali at an altitude of 11,200 ft (3,400 m), an army general told Reuters earlier, as helicopters and Nepali ground troops converged on the crash site.

"It was found on a steep slope," Major General Binoj Basnet said. "Based on information from the Nepali army, the site has been spotted."