25 July 2009
At least 17 people have been killed in a plane crash in the Iranian city of Mashhad, the second deadly air crash to hit the Islamic republic in 10 days.
"There was an accident and a fire involving a passenger plane from Tehran to Mashhad that has left 17 people dead and 19 injured," the official IRNA news agency said, quoting the deputy governor of Khorasan province, Ghahreman Rashid.
Rashid identified the plane as a Russian-designed Ilyushin and said it carried 153 passengers.
"All the dead and injured people and passengers have been evacuated and the fire has been completely controlled," Rashid said, according to IRNA.
State television said the accident occurred on Friday as the plane was landing at the international airport in Mashhad, a popular Shi'ite Muslim pilgrimage centre in northeastern Iran.
"The plane... had a technical glitch," state television said, quoting the director of the public relations department at Mashhad's Hashemi Najad airport, who was identified by his surname Pirhandeh.
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