Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was on Sunday involved in a helicopter accident.
Mr Raisi was travelling in the official helicopter when it suffered a ‘hard landing’ near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, Aljazeera reports.
Rescue operation was underway at the time of this report but was being hampered by poor weather conditions.
Apart from Mr Raisi, there were other officials in the helicopter including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.
The helicopter has been officially declared missing while search operations continue.
Government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said Vice President Mohammad Mokhber had travelled to Tabriz along with other members of the government. He said a cabinet meeting was held where officials were briefed about the missing helicopter.
Although Mr Raisi’s fate was unclear at the time of this report, the Iranian constitution states that in the case of the death of the president, the vice president would take over with the approval of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
PREMIUM TIMES will provide updates in subsequent reports.
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