DRAMATIC footage has emerged of Iranians mobbing the car of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, their president, to complain about poverty and hunger.

The remarkable show of civil disobedience occurred during what was intended as a routine tour last week of the southern city of Bandar Abbas.

As the president waved to crowds, standing in the car’s sunroof, an elderly man was shown holding on to the front hand side of the car shouting “I’m hungry, I’m hungry”. Panicked bodyguards ushered him away but as their backs were turned a young veiled woman leapt on to the bonnet and sat on the car’s roof, gesticulating as she made her point to Mr Ahmadinejad. He appeared to gesture to her to move on and she clambered off the car.

The three-minute video, which was uploaded on to Youtube and was apparently shot on a mobile phone, offers a rare glimpse of the simmering dissent in Iran at rising prices and a worsening economic situation.

Dissent was ruthlessly crushed in 2009 after Mr Ahmadinejad won a disputed election and, despite reports of continued despair, little photographic evidence of opposition to his rule has emerged since.

It may provide some encouragement to Western leaders that tough sanctions designed to force Tehran to scale down its nuclear ambitions are beginning to work. Talks between Iran and the socalled “P5 + 1” of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany were held last weekend. They were described as “positive” by both sides.