Funeral procession for Iranian president Raisi begins as thousands of mourners pack streets after deadly chopper crash
THOUSANDS of Iranian mourners have gathered to honour the late President Ebrahim Raisi after he was killed in a helicopter crash.
Residents dressed in black walked sombrely through the streets on Tuesday morning for the funeral procession of Raisi and the seven members of his entourage who also died on Sunday.
Brutish Raisi, known by some as “The Butcher”, was on Monday found dead in the charred wreckage of a US-made Bell 212 helicopter.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was among seven others – including General Malek Rahmati, the governor of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan – uncovered following an hours-long search for the helicopter in blizzard conditions.
Mourners were seen on Tuesday morning waving Iranian flags and portraits of Raisi as they left a central square in the northwestern city of Tabriz – where the president had been headed on Sunday before his helicopter crashed into a mountain peak.
Others carried Palestinian flags in recognition of Iran’s support of Palestinian militant group Hamas under Raisi’s leadership.
A truck decorated in white flowers carrying what appeared to be the coffins of the president, the foreign minister, and other officials drove through the masses to a stage.
Residents pushed forward to place their hands on the moving vehicle, reaching for the photographs of Raisi which lined its sides.
One mourner, Tehran resident Hasti Amiri, told AP: “From the moment we heard [news of the crash]… we were worried what was going to happen to us, to him (Ebrahim Raisi) and to our country.
“All of us were devastated [when news broke he had died].”
All government offices and businesses in Iran will be closed today as the country begins three-day-long funerals for Raisi and Amirabdollahian.
Raisi is to be buried in his home city, Mashhad, on Thursday.
Elaborate plans for the officials’ funeral procession will see their bodies transferred from Shohada Square to Imam Khomeini Mosalla in Tabriz, and then from the shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh to Jamkaran Mosque in the city of Qom this afternoon.
There will be a march tomorrow morning in Tehran, followed by a ceremony for high-ranking foreign dignitaries in the afternoon.
Further funeral arrangements have been made for Birjand, to take place on Thursday morning.
The procession will end at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, Raisi’s home city, on Thursday evening.
Security forces are expected to conduct identity checks of residents near the procession and to temporarily close roads to make way for the funeral cortege.