Dozens of people were crushed to death and hundreds were injured in a stampede at the burial procession of Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani on Tuesday. Iranian state television reported that Soleimani’s burial was delayed due to a stampede in Soleimani’s hometown of Kernan in southeastern Iran, as hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered to join the burial procession, some shouting “Death to America.” State TV reported the death toll of 56, with 213 injured. There was no information as to what had set off the stampede. Online videos showed people lying apparently lifeless, their faces covered by clothing. Emergency crews performed CPR on others as people wailed in the background, crying out to God. “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, head of Iran’s emergency medical services, said. A procession in Tehran on Monday drew over 1 million people in the Iranian capital, crowding both main thoroughfares and side streets in Tehran. Such mass crowds can prove dangerous. A smaller stampede struck the 1989 funeral for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing at least eight people and injuring hundreds. Kerman, the capital city of Kerman Province and the most important city in southeast Iran, is the 10th most populous city in Iran, with a population of 821,394. Soleimani’s funeral drew the largest crowd since June 1989, when Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini was buried. When Iranians heard about Khomeini’s death, they filled the street in a spontaneous gathering of grief, at which at least ten people were trampled to death, 400 were badly injured and thousands were lightly injured. Fire trucks sprayed water on the crowds to prevent heatstroke. The official funeral took place eight days later on June 11 and Khomeini’s burial was also delayed due to the huge crowd and chaos at the funeral procession. Mourners trying to see or touch the body destroyed the wooden coffin and the body even fell out of the coffin one point as mourners grabbed pieces of the burial shroud to keep as holy relics. Other mourners jumped into the open grave. The flow of enormous love for the hero today at #Kerman was so huge that it led to stampede which has unfortunately caused some deaths and injuries. Condolences to their families. pic.twitter.com/shmgVelTfw —