Iranian President Ebrahim Rais, with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahi, has been killed in a helicopter crash in north-western Iran.
As per the state media, the president and foreign minister aircraft came down on Sunday, May 20, afternoon.
However, after long hours of search operation, on Monday, the Iranian Red Crescent confirmed the bodies of the president and others who died in the crash were recovered, and the search operation ended.
The chief of the organisation said on state TV, “We are in the process of transferring the bodies of the martyrs to Tabriz (in Iran's north-west).”
Later in the afternoon the president was declared as a martyr in the announcement made at the shrine of Imam Reza.
According to the state media, “The announcer in Imam Reza (AS) holy shrine in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad breaks the news of the martyrdom of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to pilgrims.”
In the video, mourners could be heard crying as the death of Raisi was announced.
The shrine is in Mashhad where President Raisi was also born on September 1, 1955.
