EDMONTON (660 NEWS) – A plane crash near the Iranian capital has claimed the lives of 27 Edmontonians.

The former President of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton confirmed the news Wednesday morning, adding two children were among those who perished.

“Their parents were also on that flight, they were my close friends actually,” said Paymen Parseyan. “There was also a mother and her two daughters. The two daughters were university age, one was a clinical medical student, the mother was a physician. The two younger girls were school-aged, junior high school age and their parents were both professors at the University.”

Iran‘s ISNA news agency confirmed that University of Alberta lecturers Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand were among those killed.

Iran‘s ISNA news agency confirming that University of Alberta lecturers Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand were among those killed. #yeg #yyc pic.twitter.com/H4nTvhAuEF — Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) January 8, 2020

University of Alberta president David Turpin, released a statement saying at least nine of the victims were affiliated with the school.

Statement from University of Alberta president David Turpin, with the number of affiliated school victims in the #TehranPlaneCrash at nine. #Yeg #yyc pic.twitter.com/RStxoLpCoy — Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) January 8, 2020

Parseyan adds the Iranian community is overwhelmed by this news.

“It’s devastating, given the size of the Iranian population in Edmonton, this is roughly one per cent of the whole community on that one flight. Every single member of the Edmonton community will, in some way or another, know one of those members that was in that plane.”

Ukrainian Airlines released a list of the 176 people killed in the crash.

The list features the names and year of birth but not nationalities.

The youngest casualty of the crash was born in 2018.