Hyderabad/New Delhi, Sep 3 - Grief swept through India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh and much of the country Thursday at the tragic death of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, a dynamic politician who was killed when his helicopter exploded in the dark rain clouds over a deep forest a day earlier.

The ruling Congress' charismatic leader left home for Chittoor, 600 km away, for a mass contact programme in a remote village Wednesday morning and never returned. On Thursday, almost 24 hours later, the mutilated remains of his body and four others who were with him on the Bell helicopter were found on a hilltop in the dense Nallamalla forests in Kurnool, about 200 km from here.

In one of the biggest searches mounted in the country, helicopters, remote sensing unmanned aerial vehicles and even barefoot villagers hunted in pouring rain for a whole day and night in the forested hinterland for the wreckage, which was finally located about 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool town.

The helicopter had broken into several pieces and the bodies had been charred, a sombre Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in Delhi while making the official pronouncement of the death of the 60-year-old leader.

'I am officially confirming the tragic deaths,' Chidambaram stated.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter carrying YSR's body arrived in Hyderabad in the evening. State ministers and senior leaders of the ruling Congress received the casket at the airport. It was taken to the chief minister's camp office, where his family members and close relatives and friends were present.

The bodies of YSR's Special Secretary P. Subrahmanyam, chief security officer A.S.C. Wesley and pilots - Group Captain S.K. Bhatia and Captain M.S. Reddy - are being sent to their respective home towns.

Earlier, the bodies were brought from the crash site in Nallamalla forests to Kurnool town, where an autopsy was conducted. Since the bodies were charred beyond recognition and were decomposed, the military personnel had a tough time in air lifting them from the crash site.

YSR's body will be kept at the Lal Bahadur Stadium from 10 a.m. Friday for people to pay homage. It will be then taken to his native Pulivendula town in Kadapa district for state funeral.

There was shock, disbelief and tears in Andhra Pradesh as the late chief minister's body reached Hyderabad in the evening and crowds milled around trying to come to terms with the enormity of the tragedy.

'He is my god.