Late Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi has been buried in Mashhad, four days after he was killed in a helicopter crash. On Thursday (May 23), 63-year-old Ibrahim Raisi was laid to rest at Imam Reza Shrine.

Iran’s news agency IRNA reported that Raisi’s body was brought to Nejad International Airport in Mashhad by plane on Thursday afternoon local time. At this time, many people gathered to bid him farewell.

International media reported that thousands of people gathered in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad to attend Raisi’s funeral on Thursday. A large crowd was seen at Shahid Mashinejad Airport in Mashhad in the afternoon when the president’s body was brought from Birzand in South Khorasan province. Later, his coffin was taken in a well-decorated truck through the crowd of mourners to Imam Raza’s shrine. Raisi is buried in the golden-domed Imam Reza mausoleum. Imam Ali al-Reza was laid to rest in the ninth century in Mashhad, the holiest city in Iran, located 900 kilometers east of the capital Tehran.

Earlier, the funeral of Raisi and his companions was held at Tehran University last Wednesday (May 22) morning. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader of the country, led the funeral. Millions of people flocked to Tehran, the country’s capital, to pay their last respects to their beloved leader.

President Raisi visited Azerbaijan with a delegation last Saturday (May 18). On Sunday (May 19), he inaugurated a dam jointly built by the two countries with the country’s President Ilham Aliyev.

From there, Raisi and his accompanying officials were returning to Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, with a fleet of three helicopters. En route, the Bell-212 model helicopter carrying Raisi crashed in a remote mountain near the Zolfa region of East Azerbaijan.

According to Iran’s state news agency, a Bell 212 model helicopter was carrying President Ibrahim Raisi. This model is made in the USA. The US was not supposed to sell it to Iran after the 1979 revolution. As such, the aircraft is at least 45 years old.

Many important people of the country have been killed in air accidents before. Defense and transport ministers, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and army commanders have lost their lives in plane or helicopter crashes at various times.