Iran Mourns: Thousands Gather to Honor Raisi Ahead of Burial

AFP/APP

Tehran: Tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets Thursday to bid farewell to president Ebrahim Raisi ahead of his burial in his home town after he was killed in a helicopter crash.

Raisi, 63, died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others when their helicopter went down in the country’s mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration.

Men and women, who were mostly dressed in black chadors and carrying white flowers, thronged the main boulevard of Mashhad, the Islamic republic’s second city in the northeast where Raisi was born.

Some held 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.