One dead, several hurt in Iran as stir over petrol price hike turns violent

One civilian was killed and other people injured in Iran’s Sirjan, the semi-official news agency ISNA said Saturday, a day after protests in the central city over a petrol price hike.

“Unfortunately someone was killed,” Sirjan’s acting governor Mohammad Mahmoudabadi said in the report, adding that the cause of the death and whether “the individual was shot or not” was still unclear.

Other people were injured during the demonstrations, he said.

Mahmoudabadi emphasised that “security forces did not have permission to shoot and were only allowed to fire warning shots… which they did.” He said it was a “calm gathering” that was exploited by some who “destroyed public property, damaged fuel stations and also wanted to access the oil company’s main fuel depots and set fire to them”.