Military helicopter crashes into market in central Iran, killing four

At least four people were reportedly killed after an Iranian military helicopter crashed into a fruit and vegetable market in central Iran on Tuesday.

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The pilot and co-pilot were among the casualties, state media wrote, while two of the victims were reportedly civilians on the ground at the market.

The helicopter went down in the town of Dorcheh, roughly 330 kilometres south of Tehran, state media reported, adding that the army helicopter had been on a training flight.

Dorcheh is in the Isfahan province, which is home to a major Iranian air base, as well as a nuclear site that was struck by the United States during the Iran-Israel war in June.

The incident comes less than a week after an F-4 fighter jet crashed on Thursday during a late-night training exercise near Iran’s western city of Hamedan.

One pilot had been killed while the other survived after successfully ejecting, state media reported.

Iran has a history of fatal crashes, as Western sanctions on the Islamic Republic have restricted its access to aircraft parts, leaving the country dependent on ageing helicopters and aeroplanes for both government and commercial airlines.

In May 2024, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other officials died in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter crash, a Vietnam-era war relic.