A fighter jet has crashed into a school in the Iranian city of Tabriz, killing two crew members and a person on the ground.
The US-made F-5 aircraft was on a training mission when it went down at around 9am on Monday morning.
Army spokesman Shahin Taqi-Khani said a technical failure appeared to be the cause of the crash, but that an investigation was under way.
The school was closed at the time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is thought the plane crashed into an external wall before breaking up and catching fire.
A pilot and a trainee pilot on board at the time were killed, as was a local resident who was passing in their car.
Iran’s airforce has some 300 warplanes, mostly Russian MiG-29 and Sukhoi-25 fighters that date back to the Soviet era, as well as Chinese F-7s, and French Mirage F1s.
The fleet also includes some American-made F-4 and F-5 jets that date back to before the 1979 Islamic revolution, when the country was run by a Western-backed Shah.
Many of the jets are believed to be faulty and the airforce has a patchy safety record.
Sanctions imposed by the US after the revolution make it difficult for Tehran to buy spare parts for its military and civilian aircraft.
Monday’s fighter jet crash was the first accident involving a military plane reported by Iran since December 2019.
Back then, a MiG-29 warplane went down near a dormant volcano in the country’s northwest during a test flight. Three days later the military confirmed the death of the pilot.
In January 2019, a military cargo plane overshot a runway, crashed and caught fire during a botched landing near the capital Tehran. At the time the army said 15 people were killed in the accident.
A combat jet also crashed in Tabriz during military exercises in September 2011.
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