President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi died after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region in northwest Iran.
The crash site was found by rescue teams on Monday morning. The president and his foreign minister had been lost for more than 12 hours at that point.
A top Iranian official who did not want to be named told Reuters, “President Raisi, the foreign minister, and all the other people in the helicopter died in the crash.”
Mehr, Iran’s news assistant, said, “All the people on board the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred.”
There was no official statement on the cause of the disaster, but State TV stated that photos from the crash showed the aircraft crashing into a mountain peak.
“President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash … unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” a news source said.
IRNA, the state news service, said the president was flying in a Bell 212 helicopter made in the United States.
President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi died, he was 63-year-old. Mr Raisi was seen as the favorite to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Iran’s Supreme Leader. He was travelling after going to the border with Azerbaijan when the helicopter crashed.
Along with Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province, and other officials, the chopper was said to have been involved in what was first called a “hard landing” in the fog on Sunday.
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