Iranians bid farewell to President Ebrahim Raisi and members of the accompanying delegation with a mourning service being held on Tuesday in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
The people of Tabriz gathered to hold funeral procession of President Raisi and seven others killed in a helicopter crash.
The entourage of the Iranian president included Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Friday prayers leader of Tabriz Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, Governor-General of East Azerbaijan Malek Rahmati, head of the presidential protection team Mehdi Mousavi and the pilots as well as the flight crew members.
Different people of several walks of life as well as different sects and nationalities took part in the mourning service in Tabriz, according to Iranian media.
IRNA news agency said that “presence of people from other provinces, including the Sunnis of West Azerbaijan province has created a sense of unity and empathy in difficult times.”
The official news agency reported that young people from other countries, including Iraq also participated in this ceremony, pointing to the presence of foreign journalists at the funeral procession.
In Tehran, people gathered in the capital’s streets to pay tribute to the popular president.
Later on Tuesday, the bodies of the martyrs arrived at Mehrabad International Airport in the Iranian capital.
Another funeral service is scheduled to be held in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday evening, according to Tasnim News Agency.
The bodies will then be transferred to Tehran for people to bid farewell to the eight martyrs at the Grand Musalla (prayer hall) of Tehran on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning, the ritual ‘prayer for the deceased’ (Salat al-Mayyit) will be performed for the late president and his entourage in Tehran and people will attend the funeral procession that will be held from the University of Tehran to the Azadi (Liberty) Square.
Foreign officials and high-ranking delegations will attend a ceremony in commemoration of the martyrs in Tehran on Wednesday evening.
The Iranian president will be laid to rest Thursday at noon in the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, where the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) is located.
A helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed in northwestern mountainous forests on Sunday (May 19).
The fatal accident happened as the Iranian president was returning from Khoda Afarin region in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan after inaugurating a dam at the common border with the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Search and rescue teams scoured the mountainous terrain in heavy fog overnight and found the wreckage early on Monday.
The video below shows the moment when the wreckage of the helicopter was found.
Source: Iranian media
