The broadcaster showed the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leading a prayer ceremony in front of the coffins of the victims.

The procession then moved from Tehran University through streets crowded with mourners to Freedom Square.

Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and seven others were killed when their helicopter crashed in a mountainous area in northwestern Iraq on Sunday.

In the wake of the accident, Khamenei ordered five days of national mourning, ending on Friday.

State news agency IRNA said Wednesday's funeral ceremony was attended by several high-ranking political and military representatives as well as foreign dignitaries.

Raisi will be buried on Thursday at the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth imam of Shia Islam, in his hometown of Mashhad.

High-ranking representatives of the Allied countries, including Russian parliamentary leader Vyacheslav Volodin, are expected to attend.

Iran's state railway company has organized special trains to carry mourners from Tehran to the north-eastern city of Mashhad.




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