China said Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing will attend the memorial service of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash last weekend.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Zhang, as President Xi Jinping's special representative, will attend the service in the capital Tehran.

Meanwhile, huge crowds of Iranians thronged the streets of Tehran on Wednesday for the funeral procession of Raisi and his entourage.

In the city centre, mourners clutching portraits of Raisi gathered in and around the University of Tehran, where Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the prayers.

Flanked by top officials, Khamenei said prayers over the coffins of the dead, who also included Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Raisi's helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountainside in northwestern Iran on Sunday as he headed back to the city of Tabriz after attending a ceremony on the border with Azerbaijan.

A huge search and rescue operation was launched, involving help from Turkey, Russia and the European Union. Iranian 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".

From the university, the coffins will be driven to the huge Enghelab Square in the city centre and on to Azadi Square, state media said.

Funeral rites for Raisi and his entourage began on Tuesday with processions through Tabriz and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom drawing tens of thousands of black-clad mourners.

From Tehran, the bodies will be taken to Iran's second city of Mashhad, Raisi's hometown in the northeast, where he will be buried on Thursday evening after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine. (AFP and agencies)
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Last updated: 2024-05-22 HKT 16:22