Tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to bid farewell to president Ebrahim Raisi ahead of his burial in his home town after he was killed in a helicopter crash, writes France24.

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. Raisi was South Khorasan’s representative in the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body in charge of selecting or dismissing Iran’s supreme leader.

Raisi had widely been expected to succeed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led prayers in Tehran on Wednesday for the late president and knelt before the coffins of the eight people killed in the helicopter crash.