Iranian Boeing 727 passenger plane has crashed due to severe weather

TEHRAN: The Head of Iranian Red Crescent informed that an Iranian Boeing 727 passenger plane has crashed due to severe weather in northwestern Iran consequently about 75 people were killed and 40 wounded on Sunday.

Mahmoud Mozaffar told that lots of the injured were in an awful condition. He said when the Iranian Air plane was crashed, 106 people, 12 crew members and 94 passengers were on board.

Heidar Heidari, another Red Crescent officer told the state news agency, that the "death toll is expected to rise". For getting any information from the authorities the families belonging to the people aboard gathered at Tehran's Mehrabad airport.

Some officials said the plane was crashed just before landing at the airport in the city of Urumiyeh, situated about 1,000 km northwest of the capital in a rocky area near the border with Turkey. Another official said 50 people were saved and that rescue operations were being hindered by snow and fog in the area.

”The plane was damaged into pieces but did not blast” Mozafar told to the state television. The State television showed recording of the wreckage of the plane, which become visible to have broken into various parts on crash. Vast gaps were rent in the fuselage, parts of which were open to the night air as snow fell.

A spokesman for Iran's national airline, Iran Air, told the semi-official Mehr news agency that two children were among the passengers. State television said the Iran Air plane was on traveling from Tehran to Urumiyeh.

Iran has gone through a series of crashes in the past few couple of the years. U.S. sanctions against Iran have

banned it from purchasing new aircraft or spare parts from the West.