EBN- Hours after their helicopter crashed in a misty, mountainous area of the northwest of the country, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the foreign minister, and several other officials were discovered dead on Monday, according to state media.
The crash in the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan was reported by State TV without providing an immediate cause.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, a 60-year-old Iranian foreign minister, was among also the deceased. Other officials and bodyguards were also on board, including the governor of the province of East Azerbaijan, Iran, according to the state-run news agency IRNA.
Turkish officials said that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter” after releasing what appeared to be drone footage of what looked to be a wildfire early on Monday morning. The fire was located on a steep mountainside about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the border between Azerbaijan and Iran.
Early on Monday, the IRNA released footage that appeared to be the crash site. It was located across a steep valley in a range of green mountains, according to the agency. “There it is, we found it,” the soldiers exclaimed in the Azeri dialect spoken there.
Condolences started pouring in after Iran confirmed there were no survivors from the crash. Neighboring Pakistan announced a day of mourning. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X that his country “stands with Iran in this time of sorrow.” Leaders of Egypt and Jordan also offered condolences, as did Syrian President Bashar Assad.
