Iranian state TV IRIB broadcasts prayers for the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, which are addressed by worshipers in mosques of Iran, BTA reported . Prayers also began in the mosque of the holy city of Mahshad, added the television.
State television also showed rescue teams from Iran's Red Crescent advancing in thick fog toward the area where earlier today the helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian crashed in what Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi called "hard landing".
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said that 40 rescue teams were already searching the area where the helicopter was located. According to the TASNIM agency, the place where the helicopter had an accident has already been established.
The helicopter suffered the accident on its way back from the province of East Azerbaijan, where earlier today the Iranian leader and accompanying ministers and officials opened a dam with the president of Azerbaijan.
Iranian media and Minister Vahidi previously reported that contact had been made with Raisi's companions in the helicopter.
An Iranian representative, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said there was a risk to the lives of Raisi and the foreign minister after the incident, which he called a helicopter crash.
"We continue to hope, but the information coming from the crash site is very disturbing," he said.
Iran's Vice President Mohsen Mansouri also went to the scene of the incident, Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jaromil said. Along with him, several ministers also traveled to the scene of the accident.
At the same time, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, held an emergency meeting of Iran's Security Council.