Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died after his chopper crashed while flying over mountains in East Azerbaijan province amid heavy fog, Iran news media has said.
"President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash," a senior Iranian official told news agency Reuters.
State media shared the first images from the site of the crash, almost 16 hours after the accident occurred, showing the wreckage of the aircraft at a mountain peak. The cause of the crash is not known yet, but such crashes are not uncommon in Iran.
As Iranians took to the streets and offered prayers for their president, rescuers battled intense fog and icy weather to reach the site of the crash. The search team sifted through the difficult terrain to locate the wreckage
“With the discovery of the crash site, no signs of life have been detected among the helicopter's passengers,” the head of Iran's Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV.
After the chopper took off, the Iranian state media shared a grab from a video showing President Ebrahim Raisi on board the helicopter in the Jolfa region of the western province of East Azerbaijan.