Tehran, May 22 : Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Wednesday led the funeral prayers of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and six others killed in a chopper crash.

In a funeral service at the University of Tehran on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei led the prayers in front of the coffins of President Raisi and seven others who were killed in a helicopter crash on May 19.

A huge crowd of people from all walks of life have attended the funeral service in the University of Tehran.

Mourners then marched in procession to the Azadi (Liberty) Square.

A host of foreign heads of state and authorities have travelled to Iran to pay tribute to Iranian President Raisi and his entourage who died in the helicopter crash, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

A formal commemorative ceremony was held in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon to pay tribute to the late president of Iran.

The Wednesday ceremony was held in the afternoon in the presence of Iran’s acting President Mohamamd Mokhber and the caretaker of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani.

The officials attending the event include the leader of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem.

Among the other authorities taking part in the commemorative service are the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister of Armenia, Prime Minister of Iraq, Chairman of the State Duma of Russia, President of Tunisia, Prime Minister of Pakistan, among others.

Earlier, separate funeral services were held in Tabriz and Qom on Tuesday, before the bodies were transferred to Tehran for people to bid farewell to President Raisi and the seven others killed, at the Grand Musalla (prayer hall) on Tuesday night.

The president will be laid to rest Thursday at noon in the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, where the holy shrine of Imam Reza is located.

A helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed in northwestern mountainous forests on Sunday.

The fatal accident happened as President Raisi was returning from Khoda Afarin region in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan after inaugurating a dam at the common border with the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The crash killed President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, Friday prayers leader of Tabriz Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e-Hashem, Governor of East Azarbaijan Malek Rahmati, the commander of the president’s security team, two pilots and a flight crew.

UNI