Concern mounts at 'lethal' Iran crackdown on protests

Mahsa Amini died three days after she was urgently hospitalised following her arrest by police responsible for enforcing Iran's strict dress code for women

The United Nations and rights groups expressed concern on Tuesday over what activists described as a lethal crackdown in Iran against protests over the death of a young woman after her arrest by Tehran's notorious morality police.

Mahsa Amini, 22, died on Friday three days after she was urgently hospitalised following her arrest by police responsible for enforcing Iran's strict dress code for women.

Activists said she suffered a blow to the head in custody but this has not been confirmed by the Iranian authorities, who have opened an investigation.

There have been protests in Tehran but the fiercest clashes so far have been in Iran's northern Kurdistan province where Amini was from, with rights groups saying up to four protesters have been killed so far and dozens more wounded and arrested.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that witness accounts and videos circulating on social media "indicate that authorities are using teargas to disperse protesters and have apparently used lethal force in Kurdistan province."

"Cracking down with teargas and lethal force against protesters demanding accountability for a woman's death in police custody reinforces the systematic nature of government rights abuses and impunity," said Tara Sepehri Far, HRW's senior Iran researcher.

In Geneva, the UN said acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif expressed alarm at Amini's death and the "the violent response by security forces to ensuing protests."