Chronicle Editor
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has suffered a “hard landing”, state television reported, as officials said search operations were under way but were being impeded by poor weather conditions.
Iranian state media said the incident occurred on Sunday near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
A day earlier, Raisi was in neighbouring Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam alongside President Ilham Aliyev.
State-linked media said three helicopters were in the Iranian president’s convoy, and the two others made it back safely.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of the Iranian supreme leader to the province, were in the same helicopter as Raisi, state media reported.
Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Housing and Transportation Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash were in the other helicopters that made it back safely.
People who were with the president inside the helicopter managed to make an emergency call, according to the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency.
Tasnim reported that the call increased hopes that the incident can be concluded “without fatalities”.
It remains unclear exactly what caused the “hard landing”, or whether any of the passengers in the helicopter have been hurt.
-Aljazeera
Online Reporter