The mummified body with the construction worker

Express

By Laura Mowat

THE mummified remains of the former Iranian leader Reza Shah Pahlavi could have been unearthed during an excavation of a shrine in southern Tehran, according to the local authority.

Pahlavi was the ruler in Iran during World War Two before he was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlav.

He was a controversial character and his reappearance could be a problem for the country’s present Islamic leaders.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, told the state news agency IRNA that it was a “possibility” that the remains uncovered at a Shiite shrine are those of Reza Pahlavi.

Constructive workers found the mummified remains when they were working at the Shiite shrine

However, a spokesman for the Shah Abdol Azim shrine said the body was not Pahlavi’s, saying: “All the rumours on the social media that claim this mummified body belongs to Reza Shah are false and void of any truth."

Constructive workers found the mummified remains when they were working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim and a digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body. 

Pictures of the body have been spread across social media in the country.

Pahlavi was buried after his death in 1944 but the tomb was blown up by Iranian revolutionaries as they tried to erase evidence of the previous regime.

His body was never found in the ruins and has been missing for 40 years.