A Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 180 people enroute to Kiev crashed within eight minutes after takeoff from the Tehran's main international airport at 6:12 am local time, reported Iranian media.
The Boeing 737-800 owned by Ukrainian International Airlines took off from Imam Khomeini international airport at 6.12 am and crashed at 6:20 am in Parand city of Robat Karim county, said reports quoting officials of the airport.
Though Wednesday morning's missile strikes on bases in Iraq hosting US and coalition troops were reported, officials said technical snag could be the reason behind the crash and ruled out any link with the missile strikes.
Meanwhile, Iranians who filmed the crash from distance uploaded videos and the place of crash on Twitter:
Horrific vid of the Boeing 737 of #Ukraine airline w/ 180 passengers burning in the sky & crashing just outside of #Tehran mins after taking off. #Iran is having a really dark day. Over 60 killed in the stampede, then scare of an all out war and now this. pic.twitter.com/Qvtf5hdwkg https://t.co/OGz90NdeH0
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) January 8, 2020
(The story is still developing)
