Iranian plane crashes after fire, killing 168

Search teams picked through a wide area of 200 sq metres at the crash site about 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of Tehran.

"What rescuers found was bodies all ripped apart," a team member said. "We are just collecting smashed flesh in bags."

Gocha Gvaramadze, an official from the Georgian embassy in Armenia, told Rustavi-2 television channel, "As far as we know, there were two Georgian citizens onboard. One was our embassy's financial manager and another -- a wife of the head of Georgia's diplomatic mission in Iran."

Yerevan airport officials said an aircraft would take relatives to visit the site. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered a special task force to investigate the crash. Armenia's President Serzh Sarksyan declared by decree that July 16 will be a national day of mourning for the crash victims.

U.S. sanctions bar the sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran and hinder the Islamic republic buying other aircraft or spares from the West, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines and parts.

Air safety experts have said Iran has a poor record, with a string of crashes in the past few decades -- many involving Russian-made aircraft. It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002.

It was the deadliest crash since 2003 when an Ilyushin Il-76, also Russian built, crashed into an Iranian mountain.

Tehran-based Caspian Airlines was set up in 1993 and flies an all-Tupolev fleet linking Iranian cities and also routes to the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Armenia.