Iran’s president and foreign minister have died after their helicopter crashed in mountains.

The deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were confirmed by officials after rescuers found the chopper’s burned wreckage on Monday morning, more than 12 hours after it came down in bad weather.

Iranian media said the crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province killed eight people in all, including three crew members on the helicopter, which Iran purchased in the early 2000s.

Five days of national mourning have been declared by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player


0:36

Rescuers reach helicopter crash site

Funeral processions will be held in several Iranian cities on Tuesday.

The bodies of Mr Raisi and Mr Amirabdollahian will be flown to the central Iranian city of Qom, where the late president studied, and then brought to the capital Tehran, where Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected to lead congregational funeral prayers.

Rescue team works following a crash of a helicopter carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, in Varzaqan.
Pic: WANA/Reuters
Image:
Search teams at the crash site. Pic: WANA/Reuters

Mr Raisi, Iran’s eighth president since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, will be buried in the northeastern city of Mashhad on Thursday.

US State department spokesperson Matt Miller said Mr Raisi “has blood on his hands” as the former hardline cleric was “a brutal participant in the repression of the Iranian people for nearly four decades”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Iran state TV confirms president’s death

Mr Miller said Mr Raisi “was involved in numerous horrific human rights abuses, including playing a key role in the extra judicial killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988”.

“Some of the worst human rights abuses occurred during his tenure as president, especially the human rights abuses against the women and girls of Iran,” he added.

The US approach to Iran “will not change” because of Mr Raisi’s death, Mr Miller said.

Image:
Iran media says the crash happened in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province

Iran‘s Mehr news agency reported “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred”.

State TV said it had smashed into a mountain. There has been no official word on the cause, but there was thick fog in the area.

“President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash… unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” an official told Reuters.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

President of Iran killed in crash

Drone footage appeared to show the tail of the helicopter and scattered debris.

The search involving civilian and military teams had been hampered by fog and the remoteness of the crash site.

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has been put in temporary charge and new elections must be held within 50 days

Read more:
Profile: A hardliner known for his role in mass execution

Iranian TV showed the president on board the helicopter
Image:
Iranian TV showed the president on the helicopter during a trip to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan

TV picture showed thick fog at the search site. Pic: IRNA
Image:
TV pictures from Sunday showed thick fog at the search site. Pic: IRNA

Mr Raisi, 63, who was seen as a frontrunner to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei, was travelling from Iran’s border with Azerbaijan where he had inaugurated a dam with the country’s president.

The governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, officials, and bodyguards, are also believed to be among those killed.

The helicopter was travelling in a convoy of three aircraft, and Iranian media initially described it as a “hard landing”.

Iranian news agency IRNA said Mr Raisi was flying in an American-made Bell 212 helicopter purchased in the early 2000s.

State media says this is the last-known picture of the helicopter carrying the president. Pic: IRNA
Image:
State media says this is the last-known picture of the helicopter. Pic: IRNA

Pic: IRNA
Image:
The Iranian president was inaugurating a dam with the Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev (right). Pic: IRNA

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the world leaders to react to the president’s death.

He said he was “deeply saddened and shocked” and offered “heartfelt condolences to his family and the people of Iran”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani expressed “great sadness and great sorrow” in a statement.

Pakistan leader Shehbaz Sharif, posting on X, offered “deepest condolences and sympathies to the Iranian nation on this terrible loss”.

Mohammad Mokhber.
File pic: AP
Image:
Mohammad Mokhber has been put in interim charge. File pic: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a “huge tragedy” and “a difficult, irreparable loss”.

Mr Raisi was elected in 2021 in a vote that had the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.

He previously served in several roles in Iran’s judicial system, including as deputy prosecutor. He was sanctioned by the US over the mass execution of political prisoners at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.

A perilous moment for Iran – but don’t expect a change to foreign policy

This is a delicate time for Iran.

President Raisi was the second most important man in Iran, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His death, now confirmed, will have far-reaching consequences.

Although Khamenei has tried to reassure the country in recent hours, the regime will know this is a perilous moment that must be handled carefully.

There are mechanisms to protect the regime in events like this and the Revolutionary Guard, which was founded in 1979 precisely for that purpose, will be a major player in what comes next.

In the immediate term, vice-president Mohammed Mokhber will assume control and elections will be held within 50 days.

Read the rest of Alistair’s analysis

His time in charge included major protests over Mahsa Amini – the woman who died after she was arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

Iran also took the unprecedented decision in April to launch a drone and missile attack on Israel.

Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said Mr Raisi was not a universally popular figure and that many inside Iran will celebrate his death.

He said the country’s approach to foreign affairs after his death was likely to be “business as usual”.