President Ebrahim Raisi was buried in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad on Thursday as many thousands of mourners packed its streets for his funeral, four days after he died in a helicopter crash, footage broadcast by Iranian media showed, Reuters reported.

Raisi, 63, was widely seen as a candidate to succeed 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate power in Iran. Mohammad Mokhber, who had been first vice president, is serving as interim president until a June election.

The burial ceremony was attended by Iranian government and military officials, as well as religious personalities.

Flowers were thrown at his coffin as it moved slowly aboard a truck through throngs of mourners to be buried at the gold-domed Imam Reza shrine, Iran’s holiest Islamic site and revered as the resting place of the 9th century Imam Ali al-Reza. Raisi hailed from Mashhad, 900 km (560 miles) east of Tehran.

Earlier, thousands had paid their respects as his coffin was driven in a motorcade through the eastern city of Birjand, read the report.

Eight passengers and crew were killed when the helicopter crashed in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border. They included Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Iran proclaimed five days of mourning for Raisi, who enacted the hardline policies of his mentor Khamenei aimed at entrenching Shi’ite clerical power, cracking down on public dissent and adopting a tough line on foreign policy issues such as talks with Washington to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact.

The presidential election has been scheduled for June 28, Reuters reported.

A ceremony was held to commemorate Amirabdollahian at the foreign ministry in Tehran, where acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani described him as a martyr who had “guaranteed the revolutionary nature of the foreign ministry”.

Amirabdollahian was buried south of Tehran in the city of Rey’s Shah Abdolazim shrine, a mausoleum where notable Iranian politicians and artists are interred.

Pakistan will pay $2.58 million in compensation to the families of five Chinese engineers who were killed in March when a suicide bomber targeted the vehicle carrying them in the northwest, the finance ministry said.

The Chinese were attacked in the town of Bisham as they were heading to Dasu Dam, Pakistan’s biggest, where they worked.

The ministry said in a statement Thursday night that the government will also pay $8,950 to the family of the Pakistani driver who also died in the March 26 attack, the Associated Press reported.

The government says the attack was planned in Afghanistan and the bomber was an Afghan citizen. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has denied the allegations.

The compensation was approved at a meeting led by Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb, the statement said.

Thousands of Chinese are working on projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Some have been attacked in recent years by militants who accuse them of plundering mineral resources.

Iran’s supreme leader presided over a funeral Wednesday for the country’s late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, as tens of thousands later followed a procession of their caskets through the capital, Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei held the service at Tehran University, the caskets of the dead draped in Iranian flags with their pictures on them.

Iran’s acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, stood nearby and openly wept during the service.

People then carried the coffins out on their shoulders, with chants outside of “Death to America!”

They loaded them onto a trailer for a procession through downtown Tehran to Azadi, or Freedom, Square, where Raisi gave speeches in the past.

People threw scarves and other items up for attendants on the truck to touch to the coffins for a blessing.

In attendance were top leaders of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one of the country’s major power centers.

Also on hand was Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Before the funeral, Haniyeh spoke and an emcee led the crowd in the chant: “Death to Israel!”

“I come in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance factions of Gaza … to express our condolences,” Haniyeh told those gathered.

He also recounted meeting Raisi in Tehran during Ramadan, and heard the president say the Palestinian issue remains the key one of the Muslim world.

Also expected to attend services in Tehran were Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a delegation from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also flew in for the ceremony, along with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Even Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry traveled to Tehran, despite diplomatic relations between the countries being severed after the 1979 revolution. Egypt and Iran have recently discussed reestablishing ties.

Raisi, 63, had been discussed as a possible successor for Iran’s supreme leader, the 85-year-old Khamenei. The only other person suggested was Khamenei’s 55-year-old son, Mojtaba.

However, concerns have been raised over the position going to a family member, particularly after the revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah. – Associated Press