Nepal's tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari was among seven people killed Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in the country's hilly east, officials said.

Rescue workers retrieved the bodies of Adhikari, 49, the pilot and five other passengers from a hillside in Taplejung district where the Air Dynasty chopper went down.

"The respected minister's body has been identified," Ram Krishna Subedi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs, said in a press conference.

Subedi said two army helicopters had been dispatched to bring the bodies back to the capital Kathmandu.

It is unclear why the helicopter crashed.

A search and rescue team was deployed to the area after locals alerted authorities to flames and smoke rising from a hillside.