Hours after an Iranian military commander claimed to have located the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, conflicting reports emerged as the head of Iran's Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Koulivand, said that rescue teams are still searching the area for the accident site.
"Rescue crews haven't yet located the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi," CNN reported, citing the head of Iran's Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Koulivand, speaking to Iranian state TV IRINN.
The crews are still searching around where the signals were detected, Koulivand said.
Earlier, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander for East Azerbaijan province said that the military had located the crash site of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president, according to CNN, citing the Iranian state news agency IRNA. The military crew was en route to the identified location of the crash site, as per the report.
A signal was received from the helicopter and the mobile phone of one of the crew members at the crash site, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander for East Azerbaijan province, where the crash occurred. "Military forces are heading to the location and hope to have some good news," the commander had said, according to IRNA.
It has been more than 10 hours since authorities lost contact with President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter in the country's East Azerbaijan Province, where dense fog hindered search efforts during the day.
The overnight low temperature in the nearest city, Tabriz, will be in the low 50s on Monday. It's difficult to obtain precise weather data from the remote mountains where the crash took place, but temperatures there will dip closer to freezing, according to CNN meteorologists.
Meanwhile, the European Union has activated its rapid response mapping service to assist in locating the Iranian leader. The European Commissioner for Crisis Management announced the activation of the service, responding to a request from Iranian authorities.
The Copernicus EMS exposure mapping component provides highly accurate and continuously updated information on the presence of human settlements and populations with the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL).
Moreover, Iran also requested assistance from Turkey in the search for the Iranian president's helicopter, CNN reported, citing the Turkish disaster and emergency management ministry. Iran requested a night vision search and rescue helicopter, the ministry said. Turkey is also sending six vehicles and 32 mountaineer search and rescue personnel to Iran, according to the ministry.
President Ebrahim Raisi was travelling back to Iran following a visit to Azerbaijan when his helicopter came down in bad weather conditions on Sunday afternoon.
On board the chopper were Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, Hojjatoleslam Al Hashem, the head of the Friday prayer in Tabriz, Malek Rahmati, the governor of the province of East Azerbaijan, and several others.
