Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Search teams found the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province on Monday, as the crash occurred in a mountainous area with icy weather conditions.
According to a senior Iranian official, all passengers, including President Raisi and the foreign minister, were killed. The official did not want to be named due to the sensitive nature of the incident.
Iran’s Mehr news agency confirmed the deaths, stating that all passengers on the helicopter were martyred.
While the BBC reported that the helicopter was completely burned in the crash, images from Iran State TV showed the helicopter crashed into a mountain peak, but the cause of the crash is still unknown.
President Raisi, 63, was on a US-made Bell 212 helicopter. The helicopter, part of a convoy of three, had a hard landing in heavy fog in northern Iran.
President Raisi was traveling to the city of Tabriz in northwest Iran after visiting an area near the Iran-Azerbaijan border.
Rescue teams battled snow and difficult terrain to reach the wreckage early Monday morning.
“No signs of life have been detected among the helicopter’s passengers,” said Pirhossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s Red Crescent, on state TV.
In response to the tragedy, state TV interrupted regular programming to broadcast prayers for Raisi.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei assured the public that state affairs would continue smoothly. “The nation does not need to be worried. The administration of the country will not be disrupted,” he wrote on social media.
