Tabriz

Funeral observances for Mr. Raisi and the others began on Tuesday with a procession in Tabriz, the closest large city to the crash site in northwestern Iran.

The aircraft - a decades-old, US-made Bell 212 - hit a mountainside as it flew toward the north-western city of Tabriz in heavy rain.

Officials have said the aircraft - a decades-old, US-made Bell 212 - hit a mountainside as it flew to the north-western city of Tabriz in fog and heavy rain.

Raisi was travelling with Amir-Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province, Malek Rahmati, and Tabriz’s Friday prayer leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, as well as the head of the presidential security team and the helicopter’s three crew following the inauguration of two dams on the border with Azerbaijan.

One of the passengers on Mr. Raisi’s helicopter, a local prayer leader from Tabriz, eventually answered a phone and said that the helicopter had crashed.