Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has died after the helicopter in which he was travelling crashed in a dense forest area in East Azerbaijan on Sunday, local media reports said.
On Monday morning, it was announced that all the passengers of the crashed helicopter were dead, reported Mehr news agency.
Head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Pirhossein Kolivand earlier in the day said the spot where the helicopter crash had been located.
There was no sign of surviving passengers, he told the news agency.
As many as 73 rescue teams are currently searching for the helicopter.
Earlier on Sunday, Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated the Qiz Qalasi and Khodaafarin dams with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Who was Ebrahim Raisi?
In 2021, Raisi was elected as the president on the second attempt.
The 63-year-old politician was regarded as a potential successor to the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Raisi, a hardline leader, made his first attempt to become the president in 2017 when he failed to win the polls.
In his political career, Raisi served in several positions in Iran’s judicial system, such as Deputy Chief Justice (2004–2014), Attorney General (2014–2016), and Chief Justice (2019–2021).
He was also Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was Custodian and Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi, a bonyad, from 2016 until 2019.
He was a member of Assembly of Experts from South Khorasan Province, being elected for the first time in the 2006 election.
