Iranian Red Crescent says bodies recovered from Raisi helicopter crash site

 Highlights

• Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash, state media confirms.
• Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also died in the crash, along with several other individuals.
• Bodies have been recovered from the crash site, says Red Crescent
• Raisi was en route to the city of Tabriz in north-western Iran after visiting the Iran-Azerbaijan border area, according to local media.
• Rescuers who reached the crash site in north-western Iran initially reported "no sign of life."
• The incident triggered a massive search operation that was hampered by adverse weather conditions.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather, an Iranian official said on Monday, after search teams located the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province.

"President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash," the senior Iranian official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Iran's Mehr news agency confirmed the deaths, reporting that "all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred".

An Iranian official earlier told Reuters the helicopter carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was completely burned in the crash on Sunday.

State TV reported that images from the site showed the aircraft slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash.

State news agency IRNA said Raisi was flying in a U.S.-made Bell 212 helicopter.

Iranian Red Crescent says bodies recovered from Raisi helicopter crash site

The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that the bodies of president Ebrahim Raisi and others who died in a helicopter crash had been recovered, and search operations had ended, AFP reported.

"We are in the process of transferring the bodies of the martyrs to Tabriz" in Iran's northwest, Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand told state TV, adding that "the search operations have come to an end."