Rescuers search for Raisi helicopter– as it happened

Ebrahim Raisi, left, with the Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev earlier today at the inauguration of a dam. A search and rescue operation has been launched after Raisi’s helicopter crashed. Follow live updates. Photograph: AP

12.48am BST

This blog has now closed. Follow our live coverage of the search for Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter on our new blog here.

Updated at 12.48am BST

12.38am BST

Russia is sending two planes, a helicopter and 60 specialist rescue workers to Iran to help with the search operation, Russian state-run media is reporting.

The group, along with other special equipment, is setting off from Zhukovsky airport near Moscow and will arrive in the Iranian city of Tabriz, in East Azerbaijan, Tass news agency wrote.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Tass that President Putin was closely monitoring the situation and had held a meeting with the Iranian ambassador on Sunday evening.

The president told the ambassador Russia would do everything it could to help, Tass reported.

Updated at 1.09am BST