February 07 2020
The government says about half the population of greater Tehran attended the funeral for Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleymani, elevated posthumously to three-star general.
Various government officials spoke of a total attendance at the funeral in Tehran of 7 million. Greater Tehran has a population of about 14 million.
The Fars news agency said it used satellite photos of the crowd to calculate attendance of 8.5 million people.
The Tehran Metro said it carried 2.95 million riders to the Enqelab and Azadi stations—the two stations nearest to the route of the funeral—prior to the event. The day was a public holiday with shops along the route closed for the day.