Dozens of people have been killed in a stampede that erupted in the Iranian city of Kerman at the funeral procession for a top commander killed in an air strike by the United States, according to officials.

"So far 40 people were killed and 213 others were wounded in the incident," the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, citing an emergency services official.

Earlier, the head of the country's emergency services, Pirhossein Koolivand, told state television that "32 of our citizens lost their lives in the procession ... and 190 were injured" due to "overcrowding".

The injured were immediately transferred to hospital, he added.

Initial videos posted online showed people lying lifeless on a road, others shouting and trying to help them.

Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the small city of Kerman for the burial of Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, who was assassinated on Friday near the international airport of Iraq's capital, Baghdad.

The burial was postponed, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported, without providing more details.

Tuesday's funeral comes after days of processions that attracted huge crowds in the streets of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran, followed by Mashhad in the northwest, the capital Tehran and the holy city of Qom.

Al Jazeera's Assed Beig, reporting from Tehran, said many who were unable to attend the previous gatherings had made their way to the final procession in Kerman.

"People are travelling in narrow spaces, going in one direction to that specific graveyard - and that could be one of the reasons as to why a stampede has happened," Beig said.

The assassination of Soleimani triggered a dramatic escalation of tensions in the region and marked the most significant confrontation between the United States and Iran in recent years.

Macsjebs:


Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/dozens-killed-stampede-soleimani-funeral-iran-state-tv-200107093406578.html

Macsjebs:
Hmm....Can we liken this to the olden days Yoruba 'ABOBAKU' tradition

RIP

cc: Lalasticlala, Mynd44, Dominique

Chapii:
They are Chanting Death to America while the Plane that conveyed Soleimani's body to Iran is Boeing (American Plane) and the Vehicle that moved his casket around the country is Ford (American vehicle). Illiteracy and Religion is a big Sickness.


www.nairaland.com/attachments/10848164_soleimanifuneralvehicle_jpeg59ef64a640aec054f55d7d96c87a37ae

Macsjebs:
Hmm....Can we liken this to the olden days Yoruba 'ABOBAKU' tradition

RIP

dejiolaniyan:
Heard any terrorist pull mammoth of crowd to his funeral before? There is more to world politics than common man could tell!