The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has denied online media reports that a crewmember of the Ukrainian plane bound for Kyiv that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on Wednesday had called his relatives while the plane was going down.

"Some reports circulated on the Internet on January 8, 2020 alleged that a PS752 crewmember travelling from Tehran to Kyiv called his mother to say that the plane was falling after coming under fire. This information is untrue, as the ongoing investigative procedures have shown," it said.

A Boeing 737-800 operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) crashed shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran early on Wednesday morning, killing all 167 passengers and 9 crewmembers onboard.

The fatalities included 11 citizens of Ukraine (two passengers and nine crew members), 82 citizens of Iran, 63 of Canada, ten of Sweden, four of Afghanistan, and three citizens each of Germany and the United Kingdom.