AFP/Tehran
The first bodies of Iranians killed in a stampede at the Haj arrived home from Saudi Arabia yesterday.
President Hassan Rouhani and other top officials laid white flowers on coffins at a sombre ceremony in Tehran for the 104 pilgrims—among 464 Iranians declared dead in the September 24 crush.
The president was accompanied by the heads of Iran’s judiciary and parliament as well as the chief of staff of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office.
More bodies were expected to be flown home later yesterday but Iran’s health minister said not all of the Iranian dead had yet been found and many were thought to be lying unidentified in sealed containers.
“We hope with Saudi co-operation, we can find the bodies of these victims which might be among the corpses from other countries,” Hassan Hashemi told the official Irna news agency.
Iranian families face a further delay in receiving their loved ones for burial as DNA testing has been deemed necessary.
“The ID tags on the coffins do not match the victims’ identities and the existing lists in Mehrabad Airport,” the Isna news agency cited an unnamed official as saying.
The tragedy will be marked with memorial ceremonies in Tehran and in provincial capitals today.
It took a week before Iran was able to confirm 464 of its nationals had died as officials spent days scouring Saudi hospitals for the missing without success.
It is the highest confirmed death toll among foreign nationalities by far. Egypt has 126 dead and 110 missing, and Indonesia has 91 dead.
The coffins of Iranians killed in a stampede at the Haj are carried by soldiers at Mehrabad airport in Tehran yesterday.
