Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash in foggy weather in the mountains near the border with Azerbaijan, Iranian state media has reported. Foreign minister Hossein Amir-abdollahian was among those killed.
With Raisi and Amir-abdollahian in Sunday’s fatal crash were the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported early on Monday.
Iran’s Mehr news agency also confirmed the deaths, reporting that “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred”.
Reuters quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying the men were killed when the helicopter crashed in mountainous terrain and icy weather.
Earlier on Monday, rescue teams located the wreckage of the helicopter on heavily forested terrain but detected no signs of life, state TV reported Pir Hossein Kolivand, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, as saying.
Fears had been growing for the 63-year-old ultraconservative after contact was lost with the aircraft on Sunday as it navigated fog-covered mountains in north-west Iran.