Blaze, gunshots reported at prison amid protests in Iran
BAGHDAD — A huge fire blazed Saturday at a prison where political prisoners and anti-government activists are kept in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Online videos and local media reported gunshots, as nationwide protests entered a fifth week.
Iran’s state-run IRNA reported clashes between prisoners in one ward and prison personnel, citing a senior security official. The official said prisoners set fire to a warehouse full of prison uniforms. He said the “rioters” were separated from other prisoners to de-escalate the conflict.
The official said that the “situation is completely under control” and that firefighters were extinguishing the flames.
But footage of the blaze continued to circulate online. Videos showed shots ringing out as plumes of smoke engulfed the sky amid the sound of an alarm.
Witnesses said police blocked roads and highways to Evin prison and that at least three powerful explosions were heard coming from the area. Traffic was heavy along major motorways near the prison and many people honked to show their solidarity with protests.
The U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran reported that an “armed conflict” broke out within the prison walls. It said shots were first heard in Ward 7 of the prison. This account could not immediately be verified.
The prison fire occurred as protesters intensified anti-government demonstrations along main streets and at universities in some cities across Iran on Saturday. Human rights monitors reported hundreds dead, including children, as the movement concluded its fourth week.
Demonstrators chanted “Down with the Dictator” on the streets of Ardabil in the country’s northwest.
Outside of universities in Kermanshah, Rasht and Tehran, students rallied, according to videos on social media. In the city of Sanandaj, a hot spot for demonstrations in the northern Kurdish region, school girls chanted, “Woman, life, freedom,” down a central street.
The protests erupted after public outrage over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. She was arrested by Iran’s morality police in Tehran for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated in police custody, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating after she was detained.
At least 233 protesters have been killed since demonstrations swept Iran on Sept. 17, according to U.S.-based rights monitor HRANA. The group said 32 among the dead were under the age of 18.
Iranian authorities have dismissed the unrest as a purported Western plot, without providing evidence.
Public anger in Iran has coalesced around Amini’s death, prompting girls and women to remove their mandatory headscarves, or hijabs, on the street in a show of solidarity. Other segments of Iran’s society, including oil workers, have also joined the movement, which has spread to at least 19 cities.