Iran’s Raisi buried after death in helicopter crash, wrapping up days of funeral rites

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi is laid to rest, according to state media, concluding days of funeral rites attended by throngs of mourners after his death in a helicopter crash.

Hundreds of thousands march in his hometown of Mashhad to bid farewell to Raisi ahead of his burial following processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran and Birjand.

The 63-year-old died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others after their helicopter went down in the country’s mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.

Once the five days of public mourning, announced on Monday, have passed, the authorities including acting Iranian President Mohammad Mokhber will focus on organizing an election for a new president set for June 28.

Men and women, who were mainly clad in black chadors and clutching white flowers, crowd the main boulevard of Mashhad, the Islamic Republic’s second city in the northeast where Raisi was born.

Some hold aloft placards paying tribute to Raisi as the “man of the battlefield” as a large truck carrying his body drove through the sea of mourners.

Posters of Raisi, black flags and Shiite symbols are erected along the streets of Mashhad, particularly around Raisi’s final resting place — the Imam Reza shrine, a key mausoleum visited by millions of pilgrims every year.

Earlier, thousands of people holding images of Raisi and waving flags lined the streets of Birjand, capital of the eastern province of South Khorasan, for the procession of Raisi’s coffin.