Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died after the helicopter he was travelling on crashed in a mountainous area in the northwest of Iran, according to reports.
President Raisi, 63, who was seen as a frontrunner to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Iran’s Supreme Leader, was travelling after a visit to the border with Azerbaijan when the helicopter crashed.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province and other officials were also said to have been aboard the chopper when the crash, initially described as a “hard landing”, happened amid fog on Sunday.
The chief of staff of Iran’s army had ordered all the resources of the military and the elite Revolutionary Guard to be put to use in search and rescue operations, which had been hampered by the bad weather.
More updates shortly
