Iran students protest over crackdown since Mahsa Amini death

Students demonstrated in Tehran and other Iranian cities Saturday against an ongoing crackdown on dissent over the death last month of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the police.

Iranians based abroad and their supporters gathered in cities around the world in solidarity.

A wave of street violence has rocked Iran since Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died after her arrest by the morality police for allegedly failing to observe the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Protests were held across Iran for a 15th consecutive night on Friday, despite a bloody crackdown that a rights group says has claimed more than 80 lives.

On Saturday, riot police massed at major road junctions across the capital, as students gathered in Enghelab (Revolution) Square near Tehran University in the city centre to press for the release of arrested students.

Police clashed with the protesters who were chanting slogans and arrested some of them, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Video footage shared by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group also showed student protests in other cities, including second city Mashhad and Karaj, west of the capital. The protesters were seen chanting and women having removed their headscarves.

Demonstrations of support were called in 159 cities across the globe - from Auckland to New York and Seoul to Zurich, the Iranians for Justice and Human Rights group said.

In Tokyo, demonstrators waved pictures of Amini and other women who had defiantly burned their headscarves and cut their hair during the Iranian protests.

In Rome, a half dozen women cut their hair in solidarity.

The protests flared in Iran on September 16, when Amini was pronounced dead three days after falling into a coma following her arrest.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who has been under house arrest for more than a decade, urged security forces to halt the violence, in a message on the Instagram account of opposition group Kaleme.

"I would like to remind all the armed forces of their pledge to protect our land, Iran, and the lives, property, and rights of the people," he said.

Fifty-four countries have signed a statement "urging Iran to stop using force against peaceful protesters", the US special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, tweeted.

• MENA