President Raisi's body to be buried on Thursday in Mashhad: Iranian VP

Tehran, May 21: Iranian Vice-President for Executive Affairs, Mohsen Mansouri, has said that the body of President Ebrahim Raisi would be buried on Thursday in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

He made the remarks on Monday while elaborating on the planned measures for the holding of the mourning ceremonies of Raisi and members of his accompanying team, who all died in a helicopter crash in the East Azerbaijan province on Sunday, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency.

He noted that given the frequent requests by people in different provinces to attend the mourning ceremonies, the Iranian Education Ministry had cancelled all students' exams from Tuesday to Friday, adding nationwide closure had been announced for Wednesday to better hold the mourning ceremonies, Xinhua news agency reported.

The funeral ceremonies would be held for Raisi in Tabriz, Qom, the capital Tehran, Birjand, and Mashhad from Tuesday to Thursday, and the President's body would be buried in the holy shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad on Thursday night.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Monday declared five days of national mourning over the incident, according to a statement published on his website.

On Monday afternoon, a large number of people gathered in Tehran, mourning the tragic deaths of Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Governor of East Azerbaijan Province Malek Rahmati, and Iran's supreme leader's representative to East Azerbaijan Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem.

The crash occurred on Sunday in Varzaqan County as Raisi, along with his accompanying team on board three helicopters, was on his way from Khoda Afarin County, where he had attended the inauguration ceremony of a storage dam along with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev earlier on Monday, to the provincial capital Tabriz.

The members onboard Raisi's helicopter lost their lives.