At least 167 passengers and nine crew members were killed when a Ukraine International Airlines flight crashed minutes after take-off from Tehran airport on Wednesday, according to Iran's state media.
'All the 167 passengers and nine crew members were killed in the crash,' IRNA news agency quoted a spokesperson of the Imam Khomeini Airport as saying.
The flight had crashed near the airport in southern Tehran minutes after take-off when its engine caught fire, IRNA said.
The plane, which is reported to have been a Boeing 737, was on its way to Kiev in Ukraine from Tehran.
Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's Emergency Medical Services, said on IRINN, a state-run media outlet, that emergency crews have been dispatched to the crash site between the cities of Parand and Shahriar.
As per Iran's semi-official news agency ISNA, the crash was due to technical difficulties.
The crash came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing United States forces in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani.
