A Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people from seven countries crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all on board.
The vast majority of the passengers on the Boeing 737 flight from Tehran to Kiev were non-Ukrainians, including 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians, officials said.
The crash occurred with tensions high in the Middle East and shortly after Tehran launched missiles at bases in Iraq housing US troops. But there was no immediate indication of foul play and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned against "speculating" on the cause of the disaster.
The US aviation authority said it had banned US-registered carriers from flying over Iraq, Iran and the Gulf, and airlines including Lufthansa and Air France said they were suspending flights through Iraqi and Iranian airspace.
Footage released by Iranian state media showed a field on fire and the smoking wreckage of the crash. Rescue workers carried body bags and the passengers' personal items -- including cases, clothes, a Santa Claus doll and a boxing glove -- were lying amidst the debris.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), the ex-Soviet country's privately owned flagship carrier, said flight PS752 took off from Tehran airport at 6:10 am and disappeared from radars just two minutes later.
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It slammed into farmland at Khalaj Abad, in Shahriar county, about 45 kilometres northwest of the airport, according to reports on Iranian state media.
Officials in both Iran and Ukraine said there was no hope of anyone having survived.
As well as the Iranians and Canadians, the passengers included 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons, Ukraine's foreign minister said. Eleven Ukrainians -- including the nine crew -- were also on board.
Canada is home to a large Iranian diaspora community and UIA offers discount flights between Tehran and Toronto, with a transit in Kiev.
Officials in Tehran said 15 children were among the passengers. The semi-official news agency ISNA said 13 were students from Tehran's Sharif University, the most prestigious in the country.
The airline -- which suspended its flights to Tehran after the crash -- said the Boeing 737 had been built in 2016 and checked only two days before the accident.
"The plane was in working order," UIA company president Yevgeniy Dykhne told a briefing in Kiev where he choked back tears. "It was one of our best planes with a wonderful crew."
"It could be a bomb or it could be some sort of catastrophic breakup of the aircraft."
Boeing, which has been roiled by a nine-month crisis after 737 MAX was grounded, tweeted on Wednesday: "We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information."
"(The chances) of a crew error are minimal, we simply are not considering them," he said. "Considering their experience, it's difficult to say that there was something wrong with the crew."