Search under way after helicopter carrying Iran’s president Raisi crashes | News

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has suffered a “arduous touchdown”, state tv reported, as officers mentioned intensive search operations had been beneath method however had been being impeded by poor climate circumstances.

Iranian state media mentioned the crash occurred on Sunday close to Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, within the north of the nation.

Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed concern over the state of affairs in a gathering with households of Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel and urged the nation to hope for Raisi and others who had been within the helicopter.

“We hope that God returns the honourable president and his companions to the arms of the nation,” he mentioned. He additionally urged Iranians to not fear and pressured that there could be “no disruption” in governance.

Raisi was getting back from a go to to neighbouring Azerbaijan, the place he had travelled to inaugurate a dam alongside the nation’s President Ilham Aliyev, when the incident befell.

State-linked media mentioned three helicopters had been within the Iranian president’s convoy, and the 2 others made it again safely.

International Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the consultant of the Iranian supreme chief to the province, had been in the identical helicopter as Raisi, state media reported.

Power Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Housing and Transportation Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash had been within the different helicopters that made it again safely.

Individuals who had been with the president contained in the helicopter managed to make an emergency name, in keeping with the semiofficial Tasnim Information Company.

Tasnim reported that the decision elevated hopes that the incident will be concluded “with out fatalities”.

It stays unclear precisely what induced the “arduous touchdown”, or whether or not any of the passengers within the helicopter have been harm.

Rescue groups dispatched

Inside Minister Ahmad Vahidi advised state tv that numerous rescue groups had been attempting to achieve the situation of the crash, however it would possibly take a while resulting from fog and dangerous climate circumstances.

Vahidi confirmed that radio contact was made with the helicopter, however provided no additional particulars, and recommended communication traces had been minimize.

The Iranian army chief, Main-Normal Mohammad Bagheri, mentioned in a while Sunday that “all of the services, gear and capacities of the military, the military corps and the police command must be used to supply reduction and seek for the helicopter of the president and his companions”.

Authorities information web site IRNA mentioned the president’s helicopter is believed to have crashed within the Dizmar Protected Space, a forested and mountainous zone.

“Now it’s foggy, it’s wet, and the authorities are saying that this dangerous climate goes to proceed till [Monday] evening,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar reported from the Iranian capital, Tehran.

“That is going to be fairly a difficult activity for these rescue groups which can be attempting to achieve the helicopter that was carrying President Ebrahim Raisi,” Serdar mentioned.

The Iranian Crimson Crescent mentioned it deployed greater than 40 separate groups to the area the place the incident befell, Serdar additionally reported.

There was no affirmation on what kind of helicopter was carrying the president and his staff.

Iran operates quite a lot of helicopters, however many years of sanctions have made it troublesome to buy new plane or receive components.

Most of the army plane presently in service in Iran date again to earlier than the nation’s 1979 revolution.

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor, mentioned “Iran’s aviation trade has had a horrendous document”, with practically 2,000 Iranians killed in airplane crashes since 1979.

“And that’s partly resulting from the truth that they’ll’t get the gear they should service their planes,” Bays defined.

‘Feeling of uncertainty’

As info continued to trickle in in regards to the incident, a spokesperson for the US State Division mentioned the USA was “intently following studies of a doable arduous touchdown of a helicopter in Iran carrying the Iranian president and international minister”.

“We have now no additional remark presently,” the spokesperson mentioned, as reported by US media retailers.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, additionally mentioned in a social media put up that he was “monitoring the state of affairs intently”.

Turkey’s Ministry of International Affairs prolonged “greatest needs to the brotherly Iranian individuals” and mentioned it hoped Raisi and different Iranian officers concerned within the crash “are protected and sound”.

The Turkish Emergency Authority additionally mentioned it was sending autos and search-and-rescue consultants after Iran requested help.

Again in Tehran, political analyst Abas Aslani of the Centre for Center East Strategic Research mentioned “a sense of uncertainty” is hanging over the Iranian capital.

“There are questions and all people is ready to listen to what precisely has occurred,” Aslani advised Al Jazeera.

“As time goes on, hopes are reducing as a result of the circumstances are getting a lot worse and it’s getting darker.”