Helicopter Carrying Iranian President crashes

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating.

Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV described the area of the incident happening as being near Jolfa, a city on the border with with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Helicopter in a convoy carrying Iranian President Raisi crashed, Iranian media reports Iranian rescue teams started a massive effort to search for the crashed helicopter. Reports that Governor of East Azarbaijan, Ayatollah Al-Hashem and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were also present in the helicopter.