Watch: Aerial footage of ‘sea of humanity’ at General Qassem Soleimani’s funeral in Iran

The body of the slain general arrived at his home town of Kerman on Tuesday, where he will be put to rest. The body travelled from Tehran to Iran’s holy city of Qom, before arriving at Kerman.

Soleimani, 66, was considered Iran’s second most powerful figure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which would explain the unprecedented turnout of hundreds of thousands in at least three Iranian cities. Footage of Khamenei weeping at his funeral in Tehran on Monday stands testament to his stature. Police told The Associated Press that the attendees numbered into the millions.

An AFP report citing Iranian news agency ISNA said the streets of Tehran were so full of people that many were unable to emerge from underground metro stations.

“There are large crowds at metro stations but as there is also a huge crowd at the street level, it isn’t possible to evacuate passengers,” metro chief Farnoush Nobakht was quoted as saying.

The sheer number of mourners left many people stuck in sidestreets around Enghelab (Revolution) Street, the main route of a procession to a ceremony at Tehran University, AFP reported

Opinion: A direct military contest between US and Iran is loaded in America’s favour

Soleimani was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad last Friday, escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, and causing concern across the world. The US justified his killing saying he was responsible for the deaths of “hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more”.

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