Iran President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash, Iranian state media confirmed. “No survivors” were found at the crash site of the chopper that was carrying Raisi, his Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollhian and other senior officials.

After hours of searching through mountainous terrain amid inclement weather, rescue teams located the crashed helicopter. “President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash,” an official told news agency Reuters.

Iranian state TV reported that upon finding the helicopter, there was “no sign of life”.

The chopper crashed in Jolfa in the mountainous north western region of the country on Sunday. The incident happened as Raisi and others were travelling back from their visit to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan.

The next in the line for the presidency is First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, if approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Here are latest developments in this big story:

• Footage released by the state-run IRNA early on Monday showed the purported crash site of President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter, across a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local language said, “There it is, we found it.”
• Shortly after, state TV reported, “There is no sign of life from people on board.”
• The bodies of those killed in the chopper crash were transported to the city of Tabriz, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, head of the Iranian Red Crescent said, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News. He further stated that search and rescue operations have now ended.
• A total of nine people were aboard the helicopter, including Raisi, Abdollahian, three Iranian officials, an imam and flight and security team members, CNN reported, citing Iranian media. One of the three officials was Governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati.
• Search efforts continued throughout the night and into daylight on Monday to locate the site of the crash in East Azerbaijan province under difficult weather conditions with dense fog and extreme cold.
• Mohammad Mokhber, the first Vice President of Iran, chaired an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday, according to Tasnim news agency. A photo published from the meeting showed a portrait of Raisi next to a black robe draped over an empty chair.
• In a statement, the Iranian government said that it would continue to operate “without the slightest disruption”, at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East.
• Palestinian militant group Hamas mourned the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, saying he had supported it during the ongoing conflict with Israel. Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah group also mourned Raisi as a “protector of resistance movements.”