11 killed in Turkish plane crash in Iran

DUBAI: Eleven people were killed when a private Turkish plane crashed in Iran while travelling from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul on Sunday, a civil aviation spokesman said according to ISNA news agency.

Iranian state television quoted Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesman of the country’s emergency management organisation, as saying the plane hit a mountain in Shahr-e Kord and burst into flames.

Shahr-e Kord is some 370-km south of the capital, Tehran. The state-run IRNA news agency and state television said rescuers were trying to reach the scene, high up in the Zagros Mountains.

Villagers near the crash say they saw flames coming from the plane’s engine before the crash, according to a report by Iran’s state-run judiciary news agency Mizan. The semi-official Fars news agency said the plane took off from Sharjah International Airport on its way to Istanbul.