Two military pilots and two merchants have been killed after an army helicopter crashed into a fruit market in central Iran.
The crash occurred this morning in Dorcheh, a town in Isfahan province, where the army has a major airbase.
The Army Aviation Training Centre, in a statement, identified the killed soldiers as Colonel Hamed Sarvazad, the pilot; and his co-pilot, Major Mojtaba Kiani.
It added that the cause of the crash is under investigation.
Two people working at their booths in the market were also reportedly killed on the scene after the helicopter crashed and caught fire.
The local judiciary chief, Asadollah Jafari, said he had also opened a case and dispatched investigators.
The crash comes less than a week after an Iranian Air Force fighter jet, reportedly an old United States-built F-4 model, crashed during a late-night training mission in the western province of Hamadan.
State media reported that one of the pilots was killed, but the other survived after successfully ejecting but noted that The cause of that crash is still under investigation.
Iran has been largely unable to upgrade its ageing fleet of aircraft, both military and civilian, as a result of decades-long sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.
