Ukrainian plane crash kills 170 people, no clear cause

Iranian media reported that at least 170 passengers and crew members were on the plane, while Ukrainian media said that most of the dead in the ill-fated Ukrainian plane were Iranians.

A senior official in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that "according to preliminary figures, there were 168 people" on the plane that was supposed to fly between Tehran and Kiev, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cut short a visit to Oman after the Ukrainian plane crashed in Tehran.

The head of the Red Crescent said, according to what was reported by the Iranian Students' News Agency, "ISNA", that "there is definitely an impossibility that there are survivors among the passengers" of flight BS-752, which was heading from Tehran to Kiev, with 170 people on board, including passengers and crew members.

Reuters news agency reported that the plane had crashed after taking off from Khomeini Airport in Iran due to a technical malfunction, while an Iranian official suggested the death of all passengers on board.

A video circulating on social media showed the moment the plane crashed, on fire, causing a huge explosion as soon as it hit the ground. While some of the pictures circulating on the communication sites also showed pictures of the remains and belongings of the victims.

The head of the Iranian Red Crescent, for his part, ruled out the presence of survivors of the Ukrainian plane crash.

And the news agency "ISNA" reported that the Ukrainian Airlines plane crashed shortly after taking off on Wednesday morning from Tehran to Kiev.

For its part, the official Iranian news agency "IRNA" said that the air disaster resulted in "the death of all the passengers."

The agency quoted a spokesman for Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran as saying that the plane was carrying 176 people, including 167 passengers and nine crew members.

According to the initial scenes broadcast by the Iranian media of the disaster, the plane crashed in the city of Shahryar, west of the capital, Tehran.

"The fire is so severe that we can't do any rescue... There are 22 ambulances, four ambulances and a helicopter at the scene," Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran's emergency services, told television.

The FlightRadar 24 website, which tracks air traffic, indicates that the ill-fated plane was on its way to Kiev.

The agency said that preliminary information indicated that "the plane was heading to Kiev ... and it was carrying 180 passengers and crew members."

Boeing said it was aware of media reports of a plane crash in Iran and was gathering more information.