In Canada, grief and pain after the Boeing 737 crash in Iran

"Brilliant" students, children, honeymooners: 176 people, mostly Iranians and Canadians, died in Tehran on Wednesday in the still unexplained plane crash of Ukraine.

"At least 63 Canadians were on board and a total of 138 passengers on this flight were going to Canada, as many people who will not find their parents, friends, colleagues, or families," said at a conference on Wednesday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, moved.

Among the victims were "a newlywed couple, a family of four, a mother and two daughters, bright students, dedicated academics," said Justin Trudeau.

Justin Trudeau calls for "a thorough investigation"

The Prime Minister of Canada has called for a "thorough investigation" into the air disaster, the deadliest involving Canadians since the 1985 attack on an Air India Boeing 747 in which 268 Canadians were killed. Justin Trudeau also said that "Canadians have questions to ask, and [they] deserve answers."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a statement in Ottawa following the fatal plane crash not far from Tehran, Iran, in which 176 people, including 63 Canadians, died. pic.twitter.com/0g6fE2vbBB

Canada is home to one of the largest Iranian diasporas in North America, with 210,000 Canadians of Iranian origin identified in 2016, according to official figures. Half of them are based in Toronto, where one of the largest Iranian communities in North America lives, after Los Angeles.

About 30 of the victims were from the Edmonton region, the capital of Alberta, in western Canada. "We lost about 1% of our community on this theft," said a member of the local Iranian community.

"One of my friends, he, his wife, and their two young daughters were killed. His daughters were 9 and 14," said Payman Parseyan, a member of the Iranian community based in Edmonton, Alberta, west), on the CBC channel.

"Everyone is shocked"

A native of Tehran, Kavoss H. Zadeh, who lives in "Little Tehran", a neighborhood in Toronto, says he knew several victims. "Some were dentists, doctors, very educated people. Everyone is shocked now."

In addition to the Canadians, 82 Iranians, 11 Ukrainians, including 9 crew members, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three British were also on board flight 752 of a Boeing 737 of Ukraine International Airlines.

Canada cut diplomatic ties to Iran in 2012, criticizing the Islamic Republic for supporting the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

With AFP

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