Passenger plane crashes in southern Iran, killing 66 people

An Iranian passenger plane with 66 people on board, crashed in Iran on Sunday.

An Aseman Airlines flight - ATR 72 plane vanished from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport.

The plane was reportedly travelling from Tehran to the small town of Yasuj in Isfahan province. 

The plane crashed in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom in Iran's central Isfahan province, the news agency ISNA quoted emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi as saying.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on the flight were killed. The plane carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members.

Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.

Semirom's governor said rescue helicopters were unable to land in the crash site because of heavy fog and emergency workers were trying to reach the area by land, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Rescue teams have been sent to the scene to search for survivors.

Mehrabad is located in western Tehran and mainly functions as a domestic airport, although it also serves some international routes.

Last week, a Russian passenger plane crashed near Moscow soon after take-off on Sunday, killing all 71 people on board.