‘Nine Europeans’ detained in latest unrest in Iran

• Nine people from Europe were arrested during protests in Iran.
• They were thought to be “agents of foreign spy organisations”.
• At least 83 people, including children, have died in the unrest, a rights group says.

During deadly street protests in Iran that started after someone died in police custody, nine people from Europe were taken into custody.

Local media said that intelligence officers arrested people they thought were “agents of foreign spy organisations.” These people were either at protests or “behind the scenes.”

The violence shows no sign of stopping, and the number of people who have died keeps going up.

Protests started in the country’s capital, Tehran, after a Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini died while in police custody.

The 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqez in the north-west was taken into custody by morality police in Tehran on September 13. She was accused of breaking a strict law that says women must cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.

Officers didn’t say where the nine Europeans were arrested, but they gave 10 examples of how foreigners and opposition groups based outside of the country were involved in the protests.

Iran’s intelligence ministry says that the people who have been detained are from Poland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.

The ministry also said that the German, French, British, and Swedish embassies were warned that their “agents” were taking part in the protests against the government.

It also said that cyberattacks and the spreading of “fake, pro-riot news” by non-state media like BBC Persian and Iran International took place before and during the protests. These things were done either to get ready for or to go along with the unrest.

Ms. Amini passed out after being taken to a detention centre to be “educated.” After three days in a coma, she died in the hospital. Her family thinks that officers beat her, but the police say that she died of sudden heart failure.

Iran says that “foreign enemies” are partly to blame for the chaos that has broken out and caused dozens of deaths.

Iran Human Rights (IHR), a group based in Norway, said on Twitter that its latest estimate was that at least 83 people, including children, had been killed in the #IranProtests.

On Friday, 19 more people were said to have died after protesters and police got into a standoff at a police station in Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

A Revolutionary Guards colonel was one of the people who died, according to the AFP news agency. It was not clear right away if the fighting was related to the unrest caused by the death of Ms. Amini.

“Nineteen people were killed and 20 were hurt,” the governor of the area, Hossein Khiabani, said on state TV. “Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Colonel Ali Mousavi was also killed,” he added.

Sistan-Baluchistan is on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a place where drug smuggling gangs, Baluchi rebels, and Sunni Muslim extremist groups often fight.

Earlier on Friday, state media said that security forces had fired back when gunmen attacked a police station in Zahedan.

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