At least six people have been killed in Iran as the regime mounts a violent crack down on protests that spread through the country for a fifth day.
Riot squads opened fire and carried out mass arrests on protestors, who have vowed not to back down.
More cities joined the protests as night fell on Thursday and clashes intensified in several places, prompting officials to send in reinforcements.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that two people were killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in the city of Lordegan, and three in Azna.
A man called Amir-Hesam Khodayari-fard was also killed in the western Kuhdasht region, and the authorities claimed he was a member of the Basij paramilitary force killed by the protestors.
However, human rights groups have contradicted these reports, insisting he was in fact amongst the protestors and killed by security forces.
Crowds on the streets chanted anti-government slogans, such as ‘this year is a year of blood, Seyyed Ali will be overthrown’ and ‘death to the dictator’.
Dozens of people were arrested by riot police and plainclothes agents.
Police opening fire on protesters in Lordegan, Iran
Shopkeepers and traders taking to the streets of Tehran on Monday
A lone protestor sits in the middle of the road in front of armed security forces
Security forces also reportedly blocked roads, deployed a heavy armed presence to the streets, and engaged with the protestors.
Demonstrations initially began in the capital, Tehran, on Sunday when shopkeepers protested against rising prices and the government’s handling of the economy.
However, they have now spread to rural provinces and absorbed general anti-government sentiment.
It was in the face of this growing momentum that the response became more heavy-handed and the first fatalities were confirmed.
Clashes appear to have been most heated in Azna, some 185 miles south-west of Tehran, where videos posted online showed blazing objects in the streets and gunfire echoing as people shouted: ‘Shameless! Shameless!’
From Lordegan, footage also showed demonstrators amassing on a street with the sound of gunfire in the background.
The Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran identified people it said had been killed.
It also shared an image of what appeared to be an Iranian police officer wearing body armour and wielding a shotgun.
The wave of protest has now become the most significant in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations.
A large group of protesters in Tehran on December 29. The unrest began due to an acute economic crisis affecting the country’s currency which has caused soaring inflation
Multiple videos shared online appear to show violent clashes between protesters as well as casualties
However, the demonstrations are yet to take hold in all parts of Iran and have not been as intense as those surrounding the death of Ms Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab properly.
A local prosecutor in the city of the city of Kouhdasht said that 20 people had been arrested after protests there, but that calm had been restored.
The unrest comes at a critical moment for Iran’s Islamic clerical rulers as Western sanctions hammer an economy hit by 40 per cent inflation and after Israeli and U.S. airstrikes in June targeted the country’s nuclear infrastructure and military leadership.
Iran’s civilian government under reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters.
But Mr Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial currency has rapidly depreciated, with one US dollar now costing some 1.4 million rials.
Meanwhile, state television separately reported on the arrests of seven people, including five it described as monarchists and two others it said had links to European-based groups.
State TV also claimed another operation saw security forces confiscate 100 smuggled pistols, without elaborating.
On Wednesday, a photo of a lone demonstrator defiantly sitting on the road in front of armed security forces drew parallels to the ‘Tank Man’ snap taken during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The photograph, shared widely by local media including broadcaster Iran International, shows a brave protester sitting on a Tehran street in an attempt to block armed police from riding their motorbikes down the road.