Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the downing of a Russian fighter jet on the Turkey-Syria border.
He described it as a “stab in the back” committed by “accomplices of terrorists”.
Turkey says its jets shot at the plane after warning that it was violating Turkish airspace. But Moscow says it never strayed from Syrian airspace.
NATO is to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the incident at Turkey’s request.
Mr Putin warned there would be “serious consequences” for Moscow’s relations with Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he was cancelling his visit to Turkey, where he was due on Wednesday, over the incident.
He also advised Russians not to visit Turkey and said the threat of terrorism there was no less than in Egypt, where a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger plane last month.
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The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the jet had crashed in the mountainous Jabal Turkmen area of Latakia, where air strikes and fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces had been reported earlier on Tuesday.
Russian military helicopters searched for the pilot and navigator near the crash site in the predominantly Turkmen Bayir Bucak area, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported.
A spokesman for a rebel group operating in the area, the 10th Brigade of the Coast, told the Associated Press that the jet’s crew had tried to parachute into government-held territory, but that they came under fire from members of the group.
One of them was dead when he landed on the ground, he added. The fate of the second was not immediately known.
Turkey, a vehement opponent of Bashar al-Assad has warned against violations of its airspace by Russian and Syrian aircraft.
