Iran to hold memorial services for Raisi on Tuesday

President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during Ramadan meeting with a group of benefactors and officials of charitable institutions. -/Iranian Presidency/dpa

Memorial ceremonies for President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian are planned in Iran for Tuesday after they were killed in a helicopter crash.

The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that a ceremony is planned in the north-west in the provincial capital of Tabriz in the morning, followed by a ceremony in the religious stronghold and pilgrimage city of Qom.

The date for the funerals of the two statesmen has not yet been announced. Raisi is to be buried in his hometown of Mashhad.

Raisi and Amirabdollahian were killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash with seven other people. They had crashed in dense fog in the mountains over East Azerbaijan Province while travelling back from a meeting with the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a ceremony on the eve of Ashura Day, held on the 9th day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, at the Imam Abbas shrine in Iraq's holy city of Karbala. -/Iranian Presidency/dpa