Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been confirmed dead after a helicopter crash yesterday afternoon.

State media announced he had died after the rotorcraft smashed into a hillside in the north-west of the country.

The crashed occurred after poor weather conditions, with heavy fog meaning it took hours for the wreckage of the helicopter to be found.

"President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash," a senior Iranian official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Raisi's death was later confirmed in a statement on social media by Vice President Mohsen Mansouri and on state television.