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• Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi attended a ceremony on the Iran-Azerbaijan border to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev
• The first reports of a helicopter crash came in on Sunday night via social media and were broadcast on state television saying the helicopter suffered a “hard landing” as President Raisi was making his way to the city of Tabriz
• Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire that they “suspected to be wreckage of a helicopter"
• Iranian officials said bad weather and mountainous terrain hampered search and rescue operations
• A number of countries offered to help with the rescue mission, including Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia
• IRNA state news agency confirmed the death of the president, in addition to the foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
• The commander of the president's protection unit, Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, was also killed

• Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has since announced five days of mourning
• Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani has been appointed as acting foreign minister, while first vice president Mohammad Mokhber has taken over as interim president
• Regional countries, including India, Pakistan, China and Russia, have begun paying tribute to the president

Earlier, we brought you reaction from two of Iran's proxies in the region - Hamas, in Gaza, and Hezbollah, which operates in southern Lebanon.

We're also hearing from Yemen's Houthi rebels - which, like Hamas and Hezbollah, are backed and funded by Iran.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam writes in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that President Raisi's death is "a loss not only for Iran but also for the entire Islamic world and Palestine and Gaza".

He adds that Palestinians are "in dire need of the presence of such a president who continued to defend" their right to freedom.

The Houthi rebel group considers Israel its enemy and has attacked cargo ships in the Red Sea in recent months in response to the war in Gaza.

Iran, despite this tragedy, will move onpublished at 11:11 British Summer Time 20 May

11:11 BST 20 May

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

It is consequential for any country to lose a president as well as a foreign minister in a tragic accident such as a helicopter crash.

President Raisi was not the most powerful person in Iran, and was not the most powerful president in Iranian history. He was widely viewed as one of the weakest, elected in 2021 with a record low turnout and the exclusion of all moderate and reformist rivals by the overseeing body controlled by conservatives.

He was a middle-ranking cleric, a leading conservative, a hardliner who showed unconditional loyalty to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei who is the ultimate authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those are some of the reasons why Raisi was widely seen as a possible contender for the top job .

There’s been intense speculation of late over who may eventually replace the aging 85-year-old Ayatollah.

That’s been eclipsed at this moment by the more pressing priority to choose a new president.

For ruling conservatives who dominate both elected and unelected bodies in Iran, continuity, the preservation of the system, will matter above all else,

There’s been an outpouring of grief among Raisi’s supporters. There are also reports of people setting off firecrackers and celebrating.

The state funeral now being organised will be a moment for the powerful to project not just sorrow, but also strength and unity. They know their opponents, at home and abroad, as well as capitals around the world, are watching.

The elections are likely to trigger a jockeying for positions among competing conservative camps - not just to find a new president, but also to prepare the ground for the eventual transition for the top job which matters most of all.

So far today, we've been hearing tributes and messages of condolences from nations which broadly enjoy good relations with Iran.

There hasn't been much reaction coming from the West, but we have heard from the European Union.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, says the EU expresses "sincere condolences" for their deaths.

A reminder, the EU has imposed sanctions against Iran and last week agreed to expand them over the country's continued military support of Russia.

The EU has also contributed to the Iranian search effort for President Raisi's helicopter. On Sunday, the bloc said it had activated its "rapid response mapping service".

Notably, we've not heard anything yet from the US, or other Western leaders, since confirmation of their deaths, though a state department spokesperson said on Sunday they were monitoring the situation.

Geolocating the crash sitepublished at 10:52 British Summer Time 20 May

10:52 BST 20 May

BBC Verify has confirmed the location of the helicopter crash site to a point in the mountains 2km (1.2 miles) south west of the village of Uzi, in north-west Iran.

An image of the downed helicopter, shared by Iranian news outlet Khabar Fouri on its Telegram channel, has been geolocated by analyst Nathan Ruser, external of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and checked by BBC Verify.

The same image has also been shared by the Tasnim news agency, which is closely affiliated to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

It's possible to match the exact location on the hillside by contrasting the pattern of trees and the topography in the photo to satellite imagery from Google Earth (as shown in the image above).

The helicopter can be seen in the trees on an eastern slope at an elevation of about 2200m (7218ft).

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify

Image source, Crown Copyright

As details slowly begin to emerge, Iranian state media is reporting that the helicopter that carried the president and foreign minister was a Bell 212.

It’s unclear how old the helicopter was, but this model was developed for the Canadian military in the 1960s.

(As a reminder, decades of US and international sanctions began after the Iranian revolution in 1979).

The helicopters were made by the US company Bell Helicopter and used widely by government operators, including American law enforcement agencies and Thailand’s national police.

Iran’s navy and air force have a total of 10, according to FlightGlobal's 2024 World Air Forces directory, but it’s unclear how many the Iranian government operates.

They can be fitted for all sorts of purposes, including carrying people and cargo, and can be fitted with weapons for combat.

State-run IRNA news agency says the helicopter carrying the president could carry six passengers and two crew.

According to the Flight Safety Foundation, a non-profit, the latest fatal crash involving a Bell 212 happened in September 2023 when a privately operated model crashed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

The latest fatal incident in Iran occurred in April 2018, when a Bell 212 was evacuating a heart attack patient.

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, we brought you reaction to events in Iran from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Now, President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences, describing President Raisi as a "true friend of Russia" and an "outstanding politician".

He says Raisi dedicated his entire life to serving his homeland and developing "good neighbourly relations between our countries", according to AFP.

Iran has been a key military ally of Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Meanwhile, China's President Xi Jinping has described Raisi as a "good friend" to the Chinese people, adding his "tragic death" is a "great loss to the Iranian people", Reuters reports.

China is Iran's largest trade partner and a main buyer of its sanctioned oil.

Lucy Williamson
BBC Middle East Correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

As global leaders react to the death of President Raisi, few places will be watching events as closely – or responding as cautiously – as Israel.

What they are watching for is any hint from Iran that foul play was behind the incident. The slightest whiff of Israeli involvement – suspected or real – would likely plunge the region into a fresh crisis.

So far, there has been none.

Iran’s state media has instead focused on bad weather as the cause of the helicopter crash.

And Israeli officials are privately briefing local news outlets that the country had no hand in the Iranian president’s demise.

It’s only a month since the long shadow war between the two nations burst into the open, after Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles towards targets in Israel.

Since then, an uneasy status quo has been restored, but both that confrontation and the war between Israel and Iran’s proxies in Gaza and Lebanon have put the region under pressure.

Image source, Getty Images

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev says the deaths of President Raisi and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian have "deeply devastated us".

The crash on the Iranians' return from a ceremony with President Aliyev on the Iran-Azerbaijan border to inaugurate a dam.

"Iranian people have lost a statesman who has committed his life to his country with loyalty and sacrifice," President Aliyev's statement says.

"We wish patience and calm from the almighty God to the Iranian people and would like to offer our condolences to you, the families and friends of the ones who died, and all Iranian people."

Footage released by the Iranian Red Crescent shows rescue teams recovering bodies from the area of the helicopter crash.

A military official has said that identification of bodies was difficult as some were burned.

Iranian officials say the aircraft crashed after getting into difficulties in heavy fog in the north of the country.

Iranian news outlet Tasnim, which is affiliated to the country's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, is reporting that President Ebrahim Raisi's funeral will be held tomorrow in Tabriz - the city he was travelling to yesterday.

The outlet says funerals for the other victims will also be held, citing officials in Iran's East Azerbaijan province.

The bodies will be taken to a forensics department in Tabriz beforehand.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also issued an official statement announcing five days of public mourning for President Raisi.

Image source, Getty Images

Iran's cabinet has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani as acting foreign minister, following the death of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, according to Reuters news agency.

It follows a meeting of Iran's three branches of government - executive, legislative and judiciary.

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is expected to take over as president. Iran's constitution says the first vice president takes over for an interim period of 50 days if a president dies in office.

Mokhber has told state television that they would follow President Raisi's path in "fulfilling assigned duties without any interruption".

Election for Raisi more or less fixedpublished at 09:32 British Summer Time 20 May

09:32 BST 20 May

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

Iranian elections are not what people in the democratic world would recognise as fair elections.

In the past, there has been a choice of candidates from within the sort of Islamic political spectrum.

But in the most recent election for Raisi in 2021, it was more or less fixed to make sure that many prominent figures - not just reformists or liberals, but also many conservatives - were not allowed to stand.

Essentially, they cleared the way for Raisi, and that more than anything else started off this assumption that Khamenei wanted Raisi to be the man who succeeded him.

As we've been reporting, earlier today state media confirmed President Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash.

Watch the moment the announcement was made on Iranian state TV, with the broadcaster saying the crash was "due to bad weather conditions".

Years of sanctions have left Iranian aircraft unsafe - as I know too wellpublished at 09:09 British Summer Time 20 May

09:09 BST 20 May

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

The Iranian media has not been suggesting that there has been foul play, only that the weather was so terrible and there was this crash.

However, President Raisi had many enemies, and there will be plenty of people who will be very happy that he's dead.

Back in the 80s, he effectively signed the death warrants for thousands of dissidents who were mainly leftists.

He’s been president since 2021 and during his tenure he’s been involved in massive crackdowns against people inside Iran. Plus, he was tipped to get the top job and that's one good way of getting a rival out of the way. But we have no evidence for all of this.

In Iran, there's always a reflex that you blame Israel. Israeli officials have been saying to Israeli journalists, they're not involved in it. It is hard to see why Israel would benefit from what would effectively be a very provocative act of war.

As for bad weather, the fact is, is that because of years and years of sanctions, Iranian aircraft are pretty unsafe because they can't get spare parts or new airframes.

Back in 1990 when I was reporting on a very big earthquake in Iran, not far from where Raisi was killed, I was in an American helicopter, from the era of the Shah, which had to make a forced landing because one of the engines failed from poor maintenance.

A few weeks later, I was told that aircraft actually crashed killing everybody on board.

Image source, Getty Images

We've also been getting reaction from other notable regional allies - namely Russia and Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says President Raisi and Hossein Amir-Adollahian "were known as true, reliable friends of our country".

"Their role in strengthening mutually beneficial Russian-Iranian cooperation and trusting partnership is invaluable," he says, adding that Russia's "thoughts and hearts are with [Iran] in this sad hour".

As a reminder, the West accuses Iran of sending regular deliveries of drones to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine. Iran says it supplied a "small number" of drones to Russia before the war began in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad "affirmed Syria's solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran and with the families of the late deceased and his comrades".

Iran has been a staunch supporter of Assad's regime during years of civil war in Syria.

Another of Iran's proxies - Hezbollah, based in southern Lebanon - has also just released a statement.

"Hezbollah in Lebanon extends its deepest condolences," the statement reads, adding that the group knew Raisi "closely for a long time" and that he was "a strong supporter" and "solid defender of our issues... and a protector of the resistance movements".

Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim organisation which is politically influential and in control of the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.

It was established in the early 1980s by the region's most dominant Shia power, Iran, to oppose Israel.

Image source, Getty Images

Let’s now take a closer look at who first vice-president Mohammad Mokhber is, as he's likely to be appointed as the interim president by Iran's Supreme Leader, who ultimately has the last say in all matters of state:

• Mokhber was elected as first vice-president after the 2021 elections that saw Raisi come to power
• The 68-year-old top diplomat is known for being close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
• He will be a part of a three-person council to organise a new presidential election in the next 50 days
• Mokhber visited Moscow in October when Iran agreed to supply surface-to-surface missiles and more drones to Russia's military
• In 2010, the European Union included Mokhber on a list of individuals and entities it was sanctioning for alleged involvement in "nuclear or ballistic missile activities". He was removed two years later
• Mokhber had previously been head of Setad, an investment fund linked to the supreme leader
• In 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department added the fund and 37 companies it oversaw to a list of sanctioned entities

Image source, Reuters

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's president who was confirmed dead a few hours ago after a helicopter crash, was a hard-line cleric close to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The 63-year-old former judiciary chief came to power after a landslide victory in a poll which saw many prominent moderate and reformist candidates barred and the majority of voters stay away.

Ebrahim Raisi was born in 1960 in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city and home to the country's holiest Shia Muslim shrine. He started attending a seminary in the holy city of Qom at the age of 15.

While he was a student, he took part in protests against the Western-backed Shah, who was eventually toppled in 1979 in an Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

After the revolution he joined the judiciary and served as a prosecutor in several cities while being trained by Ayatollah Khamenei, who became Iran's president in 1981.

Raisi's time in office was dominated by anti-government protests that swept across Iran in 2022.

He also faced continuing calls from many Iranians and human rights activists for an investigation into his alleged role in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s.

• You can read the full story here

We're also now getting reaction to the news of the deaths of President Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian from the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.

A statement released on Hamas's official website says the group has "shared feelings of sadness and pain with the brotherly Iranian people", and "our complete solidarity" with Iran.

Iran - a sworn enemy of Israel since its 1979 Islamic Revolution - has spent years building up proxy forces in the Middle East, including Hamas by backing it with funding, weapons and training.

The group's statement describes those who died in the helicopter crash as "a group of the best Iranian leaders who had a long journey in Iran's renaissance".

The group also pays homage to the "solidarity" they showed to the Palestinian cause.