Following an accident involving a helicopter with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on board, 40 rescue teams are searching for the scene of the accident, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.
The fate of passengers and crew was initially unclear, it said. There was no contact with the team led by the president, which fuelled great concern among government supporters, according to media reports. The rescue workers searched with sniffer dogs and drones.
Raisi was travelling back from the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan earlier Sunday, where he met the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Together they inaugurated a dam.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was also reportedly on board.
The helicopter apparently crashed in Iran's East Azerbaijan province in a mountainous forest region. There were accounts on social media that both the president and foreign minister were injured.
Interior Minister Ahmad Wahidi stated that rescue teams are facing significant challenges accessing the crash site due to adverse weather conditions and difficult terrain. Therefore, there is no precise information available about the situation on the ground.
Iran's air force is considered to be severely outdated and its modernization is making little progress in the face of tough international sanctions.
Many of the aeroplanes and helicopters date back to the time before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when the country maintained close relations with the United States.
Raisi was sworn in as Iran's new president in August 2021. He won the presidential election in June with just under 62% of the vote as the leading candidate of the political hardliners and the preferred candidate and protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Born in 1960 in Mashhad in north-east Iran, Raisi is considered to be very influential within the Islamic Republic's system. He also maintains a close relationship with Khamenei.
Raisi worked in the judiciary for over three decades and was appointed head of the judiciary in 2019. He is said to have been responsible for numerous arrests and executions of political dissidents in his previous role as public prosecutor.
According to the constitution, Raisi is only number two in the country because Khamenei is the actual head of state and also has the final say in all strategic matters.
