Demonstrators gather around a burning barricade during a protest for Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by 'morality police', in Tehran. (Photo | AFP)
Iranian security forces killed five people Monday in protests in the country's Kurdish region over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman detained by modesty police while visiting family, Reuters reported.
Amini, a 22-year-old from Iran's Kurdistan province, fell into a coma and died following her arrest in Tehran last week by the morality police, sparking demonstrations in numerous areas including the capital.
Two of the people were killed as security forces opened fire on protesters in the Kurdish city of Saqez, Amini's hometown, the Hengaw Human Rights Organization said on Twitter.
It said two more were killed in the town of Divandarreh "by direct fire" from security forces, and a fifth was killed in Dehgolan, also in the Kurdish region.
There was no official confirmation of the deaths. The official news agency IRNA said there were "limited" protests in a number of cities in seven provinces that were dispersed by police.
State TV said a number of protesters had been arrested but rejected "some claims of deaths on social media" by showing two injured youths who denied reports they had been killed.
In the nationwide condemnations of Amini's death, the Persian hashtag #MahsaAmini reached nearly 2 million Twitter mentions.
The police have said Amini fell ill as she waited with other women held by the morality police, who enforce strict rules in the Islamic republic requiring women to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes in public.
But her father has repeatedly said his daughter had no health problems, adding that she had suffered bruises on her legs. He held the police responsible for her death.
The protests have been most intense in the Kurdish region, where the authorities have previously put down unrest by the Kurdish minority numbering 8 million to 10 million.
Hengaw said 75 people were injured on Monday.
A video posted on Twitter by Hengaw showed protesters throwing rocks while a man could be heard saying "there is a war in Divandarreh" and accusing the police of attacking.