Putin threatens Turkey over Russian jet downing

World leaders called for calm on Tuesday after the Turkish air force shot down a Russian fighter plane near the border with Syria, an incident which Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted would have "serious consequences."

US President Barack Obama warned against escalation, saying that it is important Turkey and Russia talk to each other to determine what happened, reports dpa.

French President Francois Hollande also said after meeting with Obama that an escalation "would be extremely damaging."

After alliance members held an extraordinary meeting in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "We have to avoid that situations, incidents, accidents spiral out of control."

Turkey, which is a member of NATO, said it shot down the plane after it entered its airspace - an accusation Stoltenberg said NATO ally intelligence supported.

A senior defence official in Moscow said one of the two pilots was killed by groundfire as he parachuted to earth after ejecting from the stricken Sukhoi Su-24 bomber. A Syrian rebel group claimed the killing.

The fate of the second pilot was unknown.

Russia was conducting a search-and-rescue operation over the crash area, which Russian General Staff Sergei Rudskoy said was located inside Syria, some 4 kilometres from the Turkish border.

A Russian marine on one of the helicopters leading the search mission was killed when the chopper he was in came under mortar fire from rebels, Rudskoy said, according to the official TASS news agency.

Ankara said the Russian bomber ignored repeated warnings over a five-minute period. Turkish pilots gave 10 verbal warnings, US defence spokesman Steve Warren said, adding that the United States was "able to hear everything that was going on" between the planes.

But the Russian Defence Ministry contradicted this, saying there was no attempt by the Turkish pilots to warn the Russian plane.

Russia, a key backer of Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad, has also maintained that the plane was within Syrian airspace at all times during its mission against "illegal terrorist formations."

Putin accused Turkey of stabbing Russia in the back.

"Today's loss is linked with a stab in our back delivered by terrorism accomplices," Putin said in comments reported by TASS.

The incident "will have serious consequences to Russian-Turkish relations," Putin said, speaking during a meeting in Sochi with Jordan's King Abdullah on the crisis in Syria and efforts against the Islamic State extremist organization.

Putin also slammed the Turkish call for Tuesday's NATO meeting, saying the Russian plane posed no threat to Turkey and was involved in action against Islamic State militants.

"Does this mean that they want NATO to serve the Islamic State?" the Russian leader asked.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, cancelled a visit to Turkey scheduled for Wednesday, and his ministry warned citizens not to visit Turkey, a major destination for Russian tourists.

A Syrian rebel force operating in the Jabal al-Turkoman area near the Turkish border said its fighters had killed one of the plane's pilots after he ejected and attempted to steer his parachute to government-held territory.

The fighter jet crashed in an area where moderate rebels backed by Turkey as well as the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda have reportedly gained ground against government forces in recent days.

Syrian state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military source describing the incident as "a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty" that "confirms beyond doubt Turkey's support for terrorism."

Russia says its intervention in Syria is aimed at Islamic State and other extremist groups. Islamic State is not present in the area where the plane was shot down, which is dominated by moderate rebels and the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.

Turkey had previously warned Russia against incursions into its airspace during the operations that Moscow launched in September in support of al-Assad's overstretched forces.

"It is our international right and national duty" to take measures against whoever violates Turkish airspace, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Ankara on Tuesday.