Iran buries late president at shrine in home city of Mashhad
Iran’s late President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been interred in his hometown of Mashhad, four days following his death in a helicopter crash.
The 63-year-old hard-line cleric was laid to rest at the holy shrine of Imam Reza, a venerated figure in Shia Islam.
Television broadcasts showed large crowds assembling in one of the northeastern city’s main streets prior to the ceremony.
The crash, which occurred on Sunday amid adverse weather conditions in Iran’s mountainous northwest, also claimed the lives of seven other individuals.
Among the deceased was Raisi’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was buried on Thursday at the Shah Abdol-Azim shrine in Rey, a southern suburb of Tehran.
Acting President Mohammad Mokhber, who will serve until the election on June 28, attended the burial preparations.
Ebrahim Raisi’s interment at the gold-domed Imam Reza Shrine, a memorial to the eighth Shia imam and the holiest site in Iran, followed three days of ceremonies held elsewhere.
State media characterised Thursday’s event as “historic,” while Mashhad’s mayor reported that “three million mourners” participated, a number nearly matching the city’s entire population.