At least 17 people killed in plane accident in Iran

TEHRAN: At least 17 people were killed on Friday in a plane accident in Iran's second city of Mashhad, the second deadly air crash to hit the

Islamic republic in 10 days, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"There was an accident and a fire involving a passenger plane from Tehran to Mashhad that has left 17 people dead and 19 injured," IRNA said, quoting the deputy governor of Khorasan province, Ghahreman Rashid.

Rashid identified the plane as a Russian-designed Ilyushin and said it carried 153 passengers.

"All the dead and injured people and passengers have been evacuated and the fire has been completely controlled," Rashid said, according to IRNA.

State television reported that the accident occurred as the plane was landing at the international airport in Mashhad, a popular Shiite Muslim pilgrimage centre in northeastern Iran, giving an initial death toll of 15.

"The plane... had a technical glitch," state television said quoting the director of the public relations department at Mashhad's Hashemi Najad airport, who was identified by his surname Pirhandeh.

It was the second deadly accident involving an Iranian airliner since July 15 when a Caspian Airlines plane crashed near the city of Qazvin, northwest of Tehran, killing all 168 on board.

That accident occurred shortly after takeoff from Tehran's international Imam Khomeini airport on its way to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

The plane caught fire in mid-air and plunged into farmland outside a village in northwest Iran just 16 minutes after take-off, killing all 153 passengers and 15 crew members on board.

Iran, which has been under years of international sanctions hampering its ability to buy modern Boeing or Airbus planes, has suffered a number of aviation disasters over the past decade.

Its civil and military fleet is made up of ancient aircraft in very poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance.

In the most deadly previous crash, 117 people on board another Russian-designed aircraft, a Tupolev, were killed when it crashed into snow-covered mountains in western Iran in 2002.