Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has tragically died in a helicopter crash, state media confirmed in the early hours of Monday.

The confirmation of the Iranian’s leader’s death was reported by both state television and the IRNA news agency.

The official confirmation comes hours after rescue workers scoured the location where the helicopter carrying Raisi went down.

Reports of the helicopter going down in Azerbaijan’s mountainous region, due to bad weather conditions came in on Sunday evening, followed by reports of the launch of rescue efforts to extract survivors. The crash reportedly occurred in the Varzghan region of East Azerbaijan.

Ebrahim Raisi confirmed to have died

Along with President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malik Rahmati, and Mohammed Ali Ale-Hashem, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to East Azerbaijan, were also killed, reported Iranian news agencies such as Mehr and Tasnim.

The group was en route from Azerbaijan to Tabriz when their helicopter experienced difficulties due to heavy fog, resulting in a “hard landing,” state media reported on Sunday afternoon.

Rescue teams spent the night searching the mountainous crash site in East Azerbaijan province, but no signs of life were found, as per Iranian state news agency.

“Ayatollah Raisi, the beloved president of our country, was martyred in a helicopter crash in the Varzghan region of East Azerbaijan and joined the Supreme Kingdom,” the IRNA statement said.

The head of Raisi’s protection unit, Mehdi Mousavi, and several bodyguards were among the casualties, according to IRNA.

The government is expected to release an official statement within the next hour.

The semi-official Mehr news agency described the president as having been “martyred while serving the people of Iran.” Vice President for Executive Affairs, Mohsen Manouri, expressed his condolences on social media, writing, “To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.”