A total of 22 people have been killed in the central Isfahan region of Iran, as anti-government protests over price rises and corruption continue.
The recent deaths of six protestors happened while they attempted to seize guns from a police station, while elsewhere an 11-year-old boy and a man were killed after a clash with a member of the Revolutionary Guards.
These protests are the largest the country has seen since the disputed 2009 presidential election.
President Hassan Rouhani said the protests were an “opportunity, not a threat”.
He added: “Our great nation has witnessed a number of similar incidents in the past and has comfortably dealt with them. This is nothing.”
Rouhani and his government are dealing with widespread spontaneous uprising and he has called for calm.
Rouhani was expecting a boost in public support when he was re-elected in May last year.
In Spring 2017, unemployment was 12.6%, up slightly from 2016’s figure, according to the World Bank.
