Security forces fire on crowd in Iran's Zahedan: rights group

PARIS: Iranian security forces fired at protesters in Zahedan on Friday, a US-based human rights group said, a month after dozens were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations in the southeastern city.

"The special police forces cracked down on the protesters and fired at the crowd" in Zahedan, the Human Rights Activist News Agency said in a Twitter post.

AFP was unable to immediately verify the footage.

A long burst of automatic gunfire was also audible in another video posted online by the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR), which said it was aimed at people who were seen scrambling for cover.

Activists said dozens of people had emerged from Friday prayers and taken to the streets of Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the border with Pakistan.

The protests come four weeks after "Bloody Friday" protests triggered by anger over the reported rape of a teenage girl by a police commander in the region.

Security forces killed at least 93 people during that unrest, according to the Norway-based IHR. At least eight security personnel were killed, based on an AFP tally from official reports.

The violence flared in Zahedan two weeks after nationwide protests erupted over the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.

Authorities in Iran have dismissed two senior police officials in Zahedan after concluding an investigation into the unrest on September 30, state media said on Friday.

The Sistan-Baluchistan security council said its investigation carried out at the request of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi found officers were negligent and that "innocent" civilians died.