Iran denies link between plane crash, military parade

TEHRAN, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Army Air Force denied a link between the plane crash and the military parade on Tuesday, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

The Army Air Force said the parade was completed successfully, and the plane crashed in a training exercise, which is not related to the air show, the report said.

In an earlier report, the official IRNA news agency said one military plane, which was taking part in an air show during the parade, crashed in a village just outside south of Tehran.

IRNA did not specify the type of the crashed plane and casualties.

The local Fars news agency said later that at 10:00 a.m. (0630 GMT) Tuesday a plane crashed near Tehran, a few kilometers from the parade site, and it immediately caught fire.

"The relief forces have found seven dead bodies of the passengers in Qarchak area (south of Tehran)," the Fars report quoted Iran's Red Crescent relief chief Ahmad Esfandiari as saying.

"The relief forces are working to clean the area and to find the probable more dead bodies," said Esfandiari.

On Tuesday, Iran started the country's Week of Holy Defense to mark the anniversary of Iraq-Iran war in 1980s.