Iranian president confirmed dead in helicopter crash after charred wreckage found

Iran’s president and foreign minister have died after their helicopter crashed in a mountainous area of northwest Iran.

Rescuers found the chopper’s burned wreckage on Monday morning, more than 12 hours after it came down in bad weather.

“President Raisi, the foreign minister (Hossein Amirabdollahian), and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

Live updates – Iranian president killed in crash

Iran‘s Mehr news agency reported “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred”.

State TV said it had smashed into a mountain. There has been no official word on the cause, but there was thick fog in the area.

“President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash… unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” an official told Reuters.

Drone footage appeared to show the tail of the helicopter and scattered debris.

The search involving civilian and military teams had been hampered by fog and the remoteness of the crash site.

Five days of national mourning have been declared by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Mr Raisi, 63, who was seen as a frontrunner to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei, was travelling from Iran’s border with Azerbaijan where he had inaugurated a dam with the country’s president.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, also died in the crash.

The governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, officials, and bodyguards, are also believed to be among those killed.

The helicopter was travelling in a convoy of three aircraft, and Iranian media initially described it as a “hard landing”.

Iranian news agency IRNA said Mr Raisi was flying in an American-made Bell 212 helicopter purchased in the early 2000s.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was among the world leaders to react to the president’s death.

He said he was “deeply saddened and shocked” and offered “heartfelt condolences to his family and the people of Iran”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani expressed “great sadness and great sorrow” in a statement.

Pakistan leader Shehbaz Sharif, posting on X, offered “deepest condolences and sympathies to the Iranian nation on this terrible loss”.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin called it a “huge tragedy” and “a difficult, irreparable loss”.

President Raisi was elected in 2021 in a vote that had the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.

He previously served in several roles in Iran’s judicial system, including as deputy prosecutor. He was sanctioned by the US over the mass execution of political prisoners at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.

His time in charge included major protests over Mahsa Amini – the woman who died after she was arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

Iran also took the unprecedented decision in April to launch a drone and missile attack on Israel.

Sky’s Middle East correspondent, Alistair Bunkall, says the president was not a universally popular figure and that many inside Iran will celebrate his death.

He says the country’s approach to foreign affairs after his death is likely to be “business as usual”.