An Iranian police helicopter crashed in the northwestern East Azerbaijan province killing five on board, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday quoting the province's police chief. "A police helicopter crashed Friday afternoon in the mountains of Varazghan town martyring five on board," the commander of the East Azerbaijan province police, Mohammad Ali Nossrati, told IRNA.
He added that three of them were the helicopter crew and the other two were the heads of the crime prevention and traffic police of the province, without giving their names. "The cause of the crash is being investigated. The commanders were on a traffic control mission in the area," Nossrati added without elaborating. Twenty seven people were killed in helicopter crashes in Iran in 2007 according to an AFP count.