Kiev: All passengers and crew on board the Ukrainian Boeing 737 plane that crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday were killed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"According to preliminary data, all passengers and crew members are dead," he wrote on Facebook of the Ukraine International Airlines plane, which was bound for Kiev.
"Our embassy is verifying information on the circumstances of the tragedy and the lists of the dead," he said. "My condolences to the families of passengers and crew members."
A senior official in the Ukrainian foreign ministry, Vassyl Kyrylych, told AFP that "168 people were on board according to a preliminary estimate."
Flight PS752 from Tehran to Kiev was scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am on Wednesday, according to the flight status still displayed on the UIA website.
According to Iranian media the plane was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members when it went down in the vicinity of Parand, a city in Tehran province.
The crash was likely to have been caused by "technical difficulties", it reported, citing Ali Khashani, spokesman for Imam Khomeini International Airport.
