Human flood in Tehran.. Huge crowds fill the courtyards of the prayer hall for Khamenei’s funeral | news

Aerial footage broadcast by Iranian media, along with recent satellite images, obtained by the Open Sources Unit, showed thousands gathering in the courtyards of Imam Khamenei’s prayer hall and the squares surrounding it in the Iranian capital, Tehran, yesterday, Sunday, to participate in the prayer ceremony and funeral of the late Iranian guide, Ali Khamenei.

Satellite images document a human flow that changed the features of the central square of the prayer hall, in a scene that matches the aerial clips that showed the arrival of large crowds to participate in the funeral of the guide, who was killed as a result of an air bombardment that targeted a complex containing his residence in Tehran late last February, on the first day of the outbreak of the war with joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Aerial and space monitoring

Aerial scenes broadcast by Iranian media, taken from the window of a plane flying over the site of the funeral ceremony, showed the exceptional size of the participating crowds, as the footage showed that the entire inner courtyards of the prayer hall and the surrounding main streets were filled with large numbers of mourners arriving from various Iranian provinces.

Satellite images taken by the American company “Planet” reinforce this aerial monitoring, as the first image taken on July 3 reveals that the central courtyard of the prayer hall and its surroundings are almost empty, while the second image taken on July 4 shows that the inner courtyards are filled with large numbers of mourners.

Stifling crowding in the metro

On the logistical level, the ceremony coincided with tremendous pressure on the capital’s transportation networks, as video clips showed severe crowding and hundreds of people arriving at metro stations.

The Tehran metro network recorded more than 7 million trips from 5:30 a.m. last Saturday until 7 a.m. yesterday, Sunday, according to the Fars News Agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

This early arrival prompted the authorities to impose extensive traffic restrictions throughout the capital, with the main courtyard of the huge complex filling up and the crowds expanding into neighboring streets.

According to the official schedule for the ceremony, today Tehran will witness the continuation of the popular funeral, with the body being transported to the city of Qom tomorrow, Tuesday, then to Iraq on Wednesday, before the body returns to the city of Mashhad on Thursday to be buried.