The leader was a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday.
The leader was a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The charred wreckage of the helicopter which crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was found early on Monday after an overnight search in blizzard conditions, according to Reuters.
"President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash," a senior Iranian official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Raisi's death was later confirmed in a statement on social media by Vice President Mohsen Mansouri and on state television.
State TV reported that images from the site showed the aircraft slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash.
State news agency IRNA said Raisi was flying in a U.S.-made Bell 212 helicopter.
Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021, and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
SaharaReporters reported on Sunday that the fate of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was unknown after the helicopter carrying him had a “hard landing” in a remote area in Azerbaijan.
Iranian news agency IRNA reported earlier that an extensive search and rescue operation was underway after the incident.
The incident occurred on Sunday in Dizmar forest between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in East Azerbaijan province.
The incident occurred as the president was returning from an event to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
According to IRNA, the helicopter's passengers were Iran's President Ibrahim Raisi; Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahiyan; Ayatollah Al-Hashemi, Imam of Tabriz Mosque and the representative of the Iranian supreme leader to the province, and Governor of East Azerbaijan Province Malik Rahmati.
Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Housing and Transportation Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash were in the other helicopters that reportedly reached their destination safely.
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi who confirmed the incident on state TV said, “The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog.”
He said, “Various rescue groups are moving towards the site, but due to the fog and bad weather, it may take time to reach the area. The work is under control.”
"There have been contacts with [the president's] companions, but given that the area is mountainous and it is difficult to establish contacts, we hope that the rescue teams will reach the site of the incident sooner and give us more information," the interior minister added.
According to him, “the region is a bit [rugged] and it’s making it difficult to make contact”.
“We are waiting for rescue teams to reach the landing site and give us more information,” he added.
Local residents told IRNA's reporter that they heard "sounds" in the region a while ago.
More than 20 fully-equipped search and rescue teams, including drones and sniffer dogs, were dispatched to the area.
The Iranian Armed Forces deployed commando units and Special Forces to assist in the search operation.