One dead after helicopter carrying Iran’s sports minister crashes: State media

A helicopter carrying 12 passengers, including Iran’s sports minister Hamid Sajjadi, crashed in south-central Iran on Thursday, killing one person, state media reported.

The helicopter crashed as it was preparing to land in the sport complex of Baft, a small city in Kerman province, the official IRNA news agency reported, citing an eyewitness.

Esmail Ahmadi, an advisor to the sports minister, was killed in the crash, the semi-official Fars news agency said.

The helicopter crashed as it was about to land in the sport complex of Baft, a city in Kerman province, IRNA reported, citing an eyewitness. (Twitter/@FarsNews_Agency)

Citing an eyewitness, IRNA reported that the condition of the minister was “favourable.”

The cause of the crash is under investigation, IRNA cited Kerman’s governor, Mohammad-Mehdi Fadakar, as saying.

In January, the European Union imposed sanctions on Sajjadi over Tehran’s crackdown on anti-regime protests that followed the death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in September.