Iranians mourn the death of the president
Large crowds of Iranians are expected to gather in Tehran to pay tribute to late president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead prayers ahead of funeral processions for Raisi and seven members of his entourage, including foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
The helicopter crashed Sunday on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran on the way to the city of Tabriz after they attended the inauguration of a dam project on the border with Azerbaijan.
A huge search and rescue operation was launched, involving help from Turkey, Russia and the European Union. State television announced Raisi's death early on Monday.
Raisi, who was widely expected to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader, was 63.
In the capital, huge banners have gone up hailing the late president as "the martyr of service", while others bade "farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged".
Tehran residents received phone messages urging them to "attend the funeral of the martyr of service".
Funeral rites for the late president and his entourage began with tens of thousands of black-clad mourners in attendance in the city of Tabriz and the Shiite clerical center of Qom.
From Tehran, the bodies will be moved to South Khorasan province before being transferred to Raisi's home city of Mashhad in the northeast, where he will be buried after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine.
The country's armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.
After his death, global allies Russia and China and regional powers voiced their condolences, as did NATO, while the UN Security Council observed a minute of silence.
Messages of condolence also flooded in from Iran's allies around the region, including Syria, Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The United Nations lowers its flag to half-mast to pay tribute to the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
