Egypt's Coptic Christians are preparing to bury Pope Shenouda III, who died on Saturday at the age of 88 Al Jazeera reported
A funeral service is scheduled in Cairo's St. Mark's Cathedral at 09:00 GMT on Tuesday, two days after thousands flocked there to pay their final respects to the longtime head of the Coptic Church.
Flags will be flown at half mast and an "unprecedented" security plan has been put in place in the capital and in Beheira province where the 4th century monastery is located, a security official told the AFP news agency.
Lengthy queues looped through the streets of Cairo's Abbasiya district from Saturday night into Sunday afternoon, eventually becoming so thick that three people died from suffocation, the country's health ministry said. At least 30 more were reportedly injured, prompting the country's military rulers to call a halt to the ceremony.
Shenouda's body, which was initially laid in a coffin, was later seated on a ceremonial throne dressed in gold and red embroidered religious vestments, with a golden mitre on Shenouda's head and a gold-topped staff leaning on his arm.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced that Shenouda's body would be flown on a military plane on Tuesday to Wadi al-Natroun, a Coptic monastic centre located in the desert of the northwest Nile Delta, for Shenouda's funeral.
Coptic bishops have arrived from around the world to attend the funeral and discuss plans to find a successor to take the reins of the church after four decades of Shenouda's leadership.
'Lot of grief'
Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from outside St. Mark's Cathedral on Sunday, said that the streets were "flooded with mourners dressed in black".
"Thousands of people are coming here to get a chance to have a last glimpse of the pope who is seated here in full attire in the papal chair in the main cathedral hall," Rageh said.
"You could see a lot of grief here ... people are coming from all around the country not just from Cairo and surrounding cities but as far as Upper Egypt deep in the countries south."
Bishop Pachomious of the Nile Delta province of Beheira has taken over papal duties for two months until a council of senior clergy meet to choose a new pope, state television said.
The spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority had suffered health problems for years, travelling to the United States frequently for treatment.
Shenouda died in his residence at the cathedral, and the state news agency MENA said he had been battling liver and lung problems for several years. Health issues forced him to cancel his weekly sermon on Wednesday.
Condolences poured in from Egypt's Muslim leaders and from politicians.
"Egypt has lost one of its rare men at a sensitive moment when it most needs the wisest of its wise - their expertise and their purity of minds," said Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayib, grand imam of Egypt's highest Islamic authority, al-Azhar.
The Vatican also paid tribute to Shenouda and said that Pope Benedict XVI had offered "prayers of suffrage".
"The Catholic Church shares in the grief and prayers of Coptic Christians in mourning the loss of their spiritual leader... May the Lord welcome this great shepherd and give him the reward he deserves for his service," a statement said.