Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash at age 63, the government has confirmed. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also among those killed, along with seven others.

The president's death comes at a fraught moment in the Middle East, with war raging in Gaza. The helicopter crashed weeks after Iran launched a drone-and-missile attack on Israel in response to a deadly strike on its diplomatic compound in Damascus.

Hardliner Raisi became president in a historically uncompetitive election in 2021. He has overseen intensified repression of dissent in a nation convulsed by youth-led protests against clerical rule.

Raisi was the second-most powerful person in the Islamic Republic's political structure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian Constitution mandates that, in the case of the death of the president, the first vice president shall assume the role.

The geolocation of the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the mountainous region of Varzeghan, near the village of Uzi, in Iran's East Azerbaijan Province. 

Drone footage and images of the wreckage taken by the Iranian Red Crescent and shown on state media FARS News Agency showed the crash site on a steep, tree-covered hillside.

The accident occurred as Raisi and Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian were returning from a ceremony to open a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, state news agency IRNA reported. Seven others in the chopper also died in the crash.