Iran Sympathizes with Mexico over Deadly Helicopter Crash after Earthquake
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi expressed his deep sorrow over the deaths of 13 Mexican people, including three children, in a military helicopter crash after a strong earthquake.
Qassemi on Sunday sympathized the Mexican people and government and the bereaved families of victims.
Mexican authorities said on Saturday that 13 people were killed when a military helicopter carrying top officials surveying damage from an earthquake crashed in a small town in the southern state of Oaxaca.
The helicopter, which was carrying Mexico’s interior minister and the state governor, crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land at night in Santiago Jamiltepec after a tour of damage from Friday’s powerful quake.
The senior officials survived but 12 people at the scene were killed and another died later in a hospital, Oaxaca’s attorney general’s office said in a statement. Another 15 people were injured.
Luis Cabrera, a civil protection official at the scene, said authorities were still investigating the cause of the crash.
The 7.2 magnitude quake knocked out electricity in Santiago Jamiltepec, about 28 miles (45 km) from the tremor’s epicenter, leaving the town in darkness Friday night.
