Eight people were crushed to death on 5 June 1989 in Tehran, and the funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had not even reached the grave. The Washington Post reported that “by mid-morning the crowd became so dense that eight people were crushed to death and hundreds more were injured.” The scene was the Musalla prayer site, where his body lay in state.
Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, died on June 3, 1989, at age 86. ETV Bharat gives the cause as a heart attack. He left the question of succession unresolved.
The burial, 6 June
The next day the procession set out toward Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. Guinness World Records, citing official Iranian estimates, put the turnout at 10.2 million people along a route of 32 kilometers, roughly one-sixth of the country’s population and “the largest percentage of a population to attend a funeral.”
The cortege barely moved. ETV Bharat reports it covered only “a half mile of the journey two hours into the funeral procession” before the crowd locked it in place. Temperatures were 91 degrees.
Then the mourners broke through. According to WION, “millions of people poured into the streets of Tehran amid the heat, desperate to touch Khomeini’s funeral shroud.” People clawed at the casket, hoping to tear off a piece of cloth many regarded as a sacred relic. It fell more than once. The shroud ripped, and the body came out of its wrapping and fell into the crowd. “Soldiers had to fire warning shots,” WION wrote, and the stampede that followed killed at least eight people and injured some 11,000 others. Other tallies of the injured run lower, from hundreds to about 500, and ETV Bharat says exact casualty figures stayed unclear.
Revolutionary Guards tried to push the crowd back and failed. Officials finally lifted the body out by helicopter.
A second burial attempt
WION describes what came next. Authorities wrapped Khomeini in a new shroud and placed him in a steel container, and the burial took place the following day. Revolutionary Guards formed “a tight human shield” around the grave.
Azat TV, writing in August 2026, said Khomeini “held absolute power for decades” and that his death “marked the end of an era for Iran.”
When WION revisited the episode in July 2026, it set it against the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. That ceremony, the outlet reported, showed mourners united in chanting against Israel and the United States.
Sources
- Khomeini funeral crush: June 1989 (Working With Crowds)
- The last time Iran buried a Supreme Leader, it descended into chaos (WION)
- When Millions Of Mourners Attended Funeral Of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini In 1989 (ETV Bharat)
- The Chaos of Devotion: The 1989 Funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini (Azat TV)
