A helicopter carrying the President of Iran and other administration officials reportedly crashed in bad weather in mountainous terrain on Sunday.
At the time of the writing, there's no official word on the fate of the passengers, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and rescue efforts are underway.
Raisi was traveling in Iran's East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a 'hard landing' happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Later, state TV put it farther east near the village of Uzi, but details remained contradictory ...
Traveling with Raisi were Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word 'crash,' but others referred to either a 'hard landing' or an 'incident.'
The helicopter crashed in a mountainous, forested, and isolated area making the site hard to reach. All indications and reports are that the crash was an accident.
A rescue helicopter tried to reach the area where authorities believe Raisi's helicopter was, but it couldn't land due to the heavy mist, emergency services spokesman Babak Yektaparast told IRNA.
Long after the sun set, Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi acknowledged that 'we are experiencing difficult and complicated conditions' in the search.
'It is the right of the people and the media to be aware of the latest news about the president's helicopter accident, but considering the coordinates of the incident site and the weather conditions, there is ‘no' new news whatsoever until now,' he wrote on the social platform X. 'In these moments, patience, prayer and trust in relief groups are the way forward.'
There are no further updates at this time. We will send out another story to update you once we find out more.
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