Growing unrest in Iran is reported to have claimed more lives on a fifth day of protests over the soaring cost of living.
Both the semi-official Fars news agency and human rights group, Hengaw, said two people had died during clashes between protesters and security forces in the city of Lordegan, in south-western Iran. Three more people were killed in Azna and another in Kouhdasht, Fars reported, all in the west of the country.
On Thursday videos posted on social media showed cars set on fire during running battles between protesters and security forces.
Many protesters have called for ending the rule of the country’s supreme leader. Some have also called for a return to the monarchy.
As the day wore on more reports came in of unrest up and down the country, on the fifth day of the protests, sparked by a currency collapse.
Videos verified by BBC Persian show protests in the central city of Lordegan, the capital Tehran and Marvdasht in the southern Fars province taking place on Thursday.
Fars reported that in Lordegan two people were killed, citing an informed official. The report did not specify whether those killed were protesters or members of the security forces. It also reported the three deaths in Azna, in neighbouring Lorestan province, without specifying if there were protesters or security officials.
Rights group Hengaw said the two killed in Lordegan were protesters, naming them as Ahmad Jalil and Sajjad Valamanesh.
BBC Persian has not been able to independently verify the deaths.
Separately state media said a member of the security forces linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) was killed in clashes with protesters on Wednesday night in the city of Kouhdasht, in the western Lorestan province.
The BBC has not been able to verify this and protesters say the man was one of their number and was shot dead by the security forces.
A further 13 police officers and Basij members were injured by stone throwing in the area, the state media report said.
Schools, universities and public institutions were closed across the country on Wednesday after a bank holiday was declared by authorities in an apparent effort to quell the unrest.
It was ostensibly to save energy because of the cold weather, though it was seen by many Iranians as an attempt to contain the protests.
They began in Tehran – among shopkeepers angered by another sharp fall in the value of the Iranian currency against the US dollar on the open market.
By Tuesday, university students were involved and they had spread to several cities, with people chanting against the country’s clerical rulers.
The protests have been the most widespread since an uprising in 2022 sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was accused by morality police of not wearing her veil properly. But they have not been on the same scale.
To prevent any escalation, tight security is now reported in the areas of Tehran where the demonstrations began.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his government will listen to the “legitimate demands” of the protesters.
But the prosecutor general, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, has also warned that any attempt to create instability would be met with what he called a “decisive response”.
