Iranian security forces arresting children in school, reports claim

Iranian schoolchildren were being arrested inside school premises on Sunday by security forces arriving in vans without licence plates, according to social media reports emerging from the country as protests against the regime entered their fourth week.

Footage showed protests in dozens of cities across Iran early on Sunday, with hundreds of high-school girls and university students participating in the face of teargas, clubs, and, in many cases, live ammunition by the security forces, rights groups said. Tehran has denied that live bullets have been used.

The scale of the continuing protests is disputed, with government officials claiming that western-backed media are giving a false picture of scattered gatherings that quickly dissolve once the security forces arrive. However, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said on Saturday that at least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in the countrywide demonstrations. Social media showed large, but not huge, crowds denouncing the regime in Tehran on Saturday night.

Despite the pictures of vans arriving at schools, the Iranian education minister, Mohammad Mahdi Kazem, said no expulsions from schools had been issued. He said the parents of students involved in the protests were being contacted.

Business groups said the repeated internet blackouts being imposed by the regime on platforms such as Instagram was severely damaging business activity, with the sales of small- to medium-sized enterprises down by between 40% and 70%. Security officials are nervous of relaxing the controls for fear of allowing protesters to send out live pictures of what is happening, as well as enabling them to remain in better contact with one another.

The Oslo-based Kurdish human rights group Hengaw claimed that security forces shot at the protesters in Sanandaj and Saqqez, with two protesters killed on Saturday. It said in total 18 minors had been killed.

The group later said clashes were continuing into the night in Sanandaj and Saqqez, along with Kermanshah, Bukan, and Fardis. The widely followed Twitter account of Tavsir1500, which sends out videos of the protests, also reported shootings at demonstrators in Sanandaj and Saqqez.

Two other teenagers were killed in the protests, according to their mothers. The state claims that both fell from rooftops in separate suicides, partly due to internal family disputes.