An Iranian official announced that the helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian crashed while crossing a mountainous region amid heavy fog as it was returning from the Azerbaijani border on Sunday.
The official told Reuters that the lives of Raisi and Amirabdollahian were "at risk following the helicopter crash."
"We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The bad weather was complicating rescue efforts, the state news agency IRNA reported.
State TV stopped all its regular programming to show prayers being held for Raisi across the country and, in a corner of the screen, live coverage of rescue teams searching the mountainous area on foot in heavy fog.
Some media outlets reported a "hard landing," others a "crash."
As a result, there was no precise information about the situation on the ground. There were accounts on social media that both the president and foreign minister were injured.
Raisi was in the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan earlier Sunday, where he met the president of neighboring Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Together they inaugurated a dam. The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River.
Rescuers were attempting to reach the site, state TV said, but had been hampered by poor weather conditions in the area. There had been heavy rain reported with some wind.
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the state media that various rescue teams were trying to reach the location of the incident but it might take some time due to bad weather.
Iran flies a variety of helicopters in the country, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Raisi, 63, is a hard-liner who formerly led the country's judiciary. He is viewed as a protege of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after his death or resignation from the role.
Raisi won Iran's 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.
Raisi is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the alleged mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the Iran-Iraq war.
Under Raisi, Iran now allegedly enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections.
Iran has also armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its brutal war on the Gaza Strip.
It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
