AMN / WEB DESK
The Iranian government has held an emergency meeting following the news that the wreckage of a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi was found in a remote region in Iran’s northwest.
Vice President Mohammad Mokhber led the emergency meeting of the Iranian cabinet Monday morning.
The helicopter carrying President Raisi and his accompanying delegation crashed on Sunday in the Dizmar forest in East Azarbaijan Province.
Search and rescue teams scoured the mountainous terrain in heavy fog overnight and found the wreckage early on Monday.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and several other officials were also on board.
Earlier, the Red Crescent’s National Emergency Management Headquarters announced that its rescue teams have moved to the 2 identified hot spots identified by a Turkish drone.
“Red Crescent rescue teams are moving towards the possible landing place of the helicopter”, it said after Turkey’s high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle named Akinji detected a hot spot that probably belongs to the place where the helicopter crashed.
A commander of Iran’s Revolution Guards Corps confirmed the detection of the heat source was believed to be the wreckage of the helicopter.
An announcement was also made by field source that the precise geographical coordinates of the helicopter carrying President Raisi were determined by the aerial monitoring of the region.
Despite the adverse weather conditions, rescuers tried round the clock to find the site of a missing helicopter that was carrying the Iranian President and his delegation in northwestern part of the country.
Rescue teams, including armed forces, combed the rocky area and the hilly terrain near the city of Varzaqan in East Azarbaijan province despite foggy and rainy weather.
Earlier, Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said it had dispatched more groups to help locate the crash. “46 rapid response and rescue teams from the provinces of East Azarbaijan, Tehran, Alborz, Ardabil, Zanjan and West Azarbaijan were mobilized to help in the search and rescue operation”.
President Raisi was returning with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and several others from a ceremony to inaugurate a dam on Iran’s border with the Azerbaijan Republic, when his helicopter crashed upon landing in Varzaqan region on Sunday.