(Files) This handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency shows Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi giving the annual address to the nation for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, in Tehran on March 20, 2024. (Photo by Iranian Presidency / AFP)
Tehran: Iranian state media said President Ebrahim Raisi died on Monday after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.
The government has not yet issued a confirmation of the leader's death.
Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, the foreign minister and other officials had gone missing.
Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.
"The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people," state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.
State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.
Iran's vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences.
