(CNN) At least 56 people were crushed to death Tuesday when a stampede broke out at the funeral of the Iranian commander killed in a US drone strike.

State-run Iranian broadcaster IRINN reported 35 men and 21 women died, and another 213 people were injured, at the funeral procession for Qasem Soleimani in his hometown of Kerman. Images showed tens of thousands of people pouring into the streets to honor the slain commander, a revered figure in Iran.

The chaos forced Iranian authorities to delay Soleimani's burial, four days after a US drone strike at Baghdad's airport killed him in a dramatic escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington, and US allies in the Middle East. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iranian-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The coffins of Qasem Soleimani and others killed in a US drone strike are carried by mourners in Kerman, Iran, on Tuesday.

As head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Soleimani became the architect of Tehran's proxy conflicts in the Middle East.

Iran has vowed revenge for the killing, which it describes as an "act of war" and "state terrorism."

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