Search team finds helicopter carrying Iranian president Ibrahim Raisi: No sign of life

Iranian state television, quoted by AFP, indicated there was “no sign” of life aboard the Iranian president's crashed helicopter.

“The exact location of the helicopter crash has been identified,” East Azerbaijan Army Commander General Asghar Abascolizadeh was quoted as saying by the official IRNA agency.

“A signal was received from the helicopter a few minutes ago and from the mobile phone of one of the personnel at the crash site,” the source said.

“Now we are going to the area with all the military forces and we hope to deliver the good news,” Abascolizadeh said.

Earlier, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Mohsen Mansoori said Raisi had come into contact with two passengers on several occasions in the helicopter that had to make an emergency landing in a mountainous area of ​​the province. East Azerbaijan.

Mansouri indicated that three helicopters took off from Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan province, at 1:00 pm local time (11:30 GMT) and lost contact with the device Raizi was traveling in about 30 minutes later.

The head of the Red Cross in Iran, quoted by AFP, announced on Monday that the crashed helicopter carrying the country's President Ibrahim Raisi had been found, adding that “the situation is not good”.

“The helicopter has been found. We are now moving towards the helicopter,” said Birhossein Koulivant. He added that the situation is not good.

AFP quoted state TV as saying there was “no sign of life” in the crashed helicopter belonging to the Iranian president.

Traveling with the president were Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malik Rahmati and Tabriz's Friday prayer leader Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem.

A large apparatus of at least 65 rescue teams had already been launched after contact was lost, but operations were hampered by bad weather, rain and thick fog in the mountainous region of the crash site after dark in Iran, the Red Crescent said.

Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, called for Raizi's whereabouts to remain anonymous and promised “there will be no disruption to the country's activities”.

Meanwhile, images broadcast on state television showed hundreds of people gathered in the holy cities of Mashhad and Qom to pray for the ultraconservative president's well-being.

Raisi joined his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Sunday to inaugurate a dam on the border between the two countries, a project the leaders described as a breakthrough in bilateral relations.

The ultra-conservative president came to power in 2021 after winning the presidential election with the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Under his regime, repression of activists, women and critics of the regime has intensified.