A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister has crashed while it was crossing mountainous terrain amid heavy fog, according to Iranian officials.
The country’s interior minister, Ahmed Vahidi, confirmed to state media that the aircraft had experienced a rough landing.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati and Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of the Iranian supreme leader to the province, were in the same helicopter as Raisi, state media reported.
The aircraft was in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province at the time. The incident happened near the city of Jolfa, some 600km northwest of the Iranian capital.
An unnamed Iranian official told Reuters that Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were “at risk following the crash”.
“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Raisi, 63, visited the East Azerbaijan province on Sunday to inaugurate a dam project with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliev, on the border between the two countries.
A former air force commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told Middle East Eye that the helicopters used by the country’s officials were “very old”.
Rescue teams are reportedly on their way to the site, but were being hampered by difficult weather conditions, Vahidi said.
Tasnim news agency reported that the crash area was in a difficult-to-access terrain, posing challenges for the rescue teams.
An emergency service spokesperson told Tasnim that an emergency air ambulance was dispatched to the area, “but unfortunately, due to heavy fog, further aerial operations were not possible”.
The spokesperson added that eight emergency ambulances from the city of Tabriz had been sent to the area, as well as emergency rescue teams to conduct a search of the area and provide urgent medical services.
Following the reports, Fars news agency and Raisi’s Instagram page called on Iranians to pray for the president, who has been in office since June 2021. State media also aired prayers being held for the safety of the president around the country.
Speaking to Mehr news agency, the head of Iran’s relief and rescue organisation asked Iranians to follow the news on official media and “under no circumstances go to the area to avoid interference with the rescue operation.
According to the Iranian constitution, in the event of the death, dismissal, resignation, absence, or illness (lasting more than two months) of the president, the vice president, with the approval of Iran’s supreme leader, is to assume the president’s responsibilities.
A council consisting of the parliamentary speaker, the head of the judiciary, and the vice president is then required to arrange the election of a new president within a maximum period of 50 days.
