At least 56 Iranians were crushed to death Tuesday in a stampede that erupted during the funeral for Qassem Soleimani, the general killed last week in a U.S. airstrike, the country’s state media is reporting.
The gory episode in Soleimani’s hometown of Kerman, which also reportedly left more than 200 injured, came as the U.S. Maritime Administration is warning ships across the Middle East to be on alert for possible retaliatory attacks from Iran.
“Unfortunately as a result of the stampede, some of our compatriots have been injured and some have been killed during the funeral processions,” Pirhossein Koulivand, the head of Iran’s emergency medical services, told state media.
The cause of the stampede was not immediately clear. Videos posted online showed people lying lifeless on a road and others shouting and trying to help them — and the incident has now delayed Soleimani’s funeral services.
It’s not the first time that chaos has erupted at a funeral for an influential Iranian figure.
In 1989, a funeral procession in Tehran for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was interrupted when his half-naked remains toppled out of an open coffin live on state television. Mourners had blocked the path of a truck carrying the deceased leader of the Iranian revolution and tore at his burial shroud, knocking his body to the ground. That led the broadcast to be cut short and his body airlifted by military helicopter away from the crowd until his remains could be rewrapped. – READ MORE