The Bodies Of President Raisi And His Entourage Were Successfully Identified: All Known, No DNA Tests Needed And Immediately Evacuated

Rescue workers at the crash site of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter. (Source: IRNA)

JAKARTA - The bodies of President Ebrahim Raisi and members of his delegation, who died in Sunday's helicopter crash, were identified and did not need to do a DNA test, the head of Iran's Disaster Management Organization said.

"All the bodies can be recognized and have been transferred to the Legal Medicine Organization," Mohammad Hassan Namibia told IRNA on Monday, as quoted on May 21.

Namibia added that all the bodies were recognizable despite burns. Among them, the body of Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, leader of Tabriz Friday Prayer, is in better condition," he added.

"He was still alive for up to an hour after the air accident and even had a telephone conversation with Mr. Gholam-Hossein Esmaeili, head of the Presidential Office," the official said.

President Raisi and his entourage, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollhian, recently returned from an event on the border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate the dam project on Sunday, when their helicopter crashed in bad weather conditions in mountainous areas northwestern Iran.

Search and rescue officers found the crash site in the dense forest of Dizmar in East Azerbaijan Province on Monday morning after an 18-hour operation, hampered by thick fog, rain, and steep terrain in the area.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei mourns the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, saying the accident he experienced was a bitter tragedy.

Khamenei announced five days of public mourning after President Raisi died in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also expressed his sadness over the death of another senior official accompanying President Raisi in a helicopter crash in East Azerbaijan, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.