By NewsDrum Desk

Dubai: Protesters across Iran continued to clash violently with security forces early on Friday following the death of a young woman in police custody, as Iranian state TV suggested the death toll from the unrest could be as high as 26, without offering details.

Although the scope of the protests across some dozen Iranian cities and towns remains unclear, the movement represents the widest unrest since 2019, when rights groups said hundreds of people were killed in a violent crackdown.

Iran has also disrupted internet access to the outside world, according to internet traffic monitor Netblocks, tightening restrictions on popular platforms used to organise rallies like Instagram and WhatsApp.

An anchor on state TV said late on Thursday that 26 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating on how authorities reached that figure.

He said official statistics would be released later, but in past times of turmoil the Iranian government has not offered official death tolls.

The unrest has killed at least 11 people according to a tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media.

Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed in the unrest that rocked two cities in the northwestern province.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as an outpouring over the death of Amini, a young woman from a northwestern Kurdish town, who was arrested by the country's morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly violating its strictly-enforced dress code.

Her death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations, and touched a national nerve.

Videos show Amini wearing a long black covering and state-mandated Islamic headscarf at the time of her arrest.

The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated.

Read more: https://www.newsdrum.in/international/hijab-row-violent-unrest-continues-in-iran-state-tv-suggests-26-dead-93505.html