A helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was involved in “an accident” in poor weather conditions on Sunday, state media reported, with a search underway and no news yet on their conditions.
“An accident happened to the helicopter carrying the president” in the Jofa region of the western province of East Azerbaijan, state television said.
One of the helicopters in a convoy carrying Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi had a rough landing, the country’s interior minister, Ahmed Vahidi, confirmed to state TV, adding that rescue teams were being hampered by difficult weather conditions.
“The harsh weather conditions and heavy fog have made it difficult for the rescue teams to reach the accident site,” state TV said in an on-screen news alert.
An Iranian official said the lives of Raisi and Amirabdollahian were “at risk following the helicopter crash”.
“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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State TV broadcast footage of an Iranian Red Crescent team walking up a slope in thick fog, as well as live footage of crowds of worshippers reciting prayers in the holy Shrine of Imam Reza in the city Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.
Sunday’s accident happened in the mountainous protected forest area of Dizmar near the town of Varzaghan, said the official IRNA news agency.
According to some local media, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and local officials were travelling in the same helicopter as Raisi.
Raisi was visiting East Azerbaijan province on Sunday where he inaugurated a dam project in the company of his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliev, on the border between the two countries.
Raisi, 63, has been president of the Islamic Republic since June 2021.
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