Human rights activists have expressed alarm at a crackdown on protests in a Kurdish-populated city in western Iran.
Amnesty International said there were reports that security forces had used firearms indiscriminately in Sanandaj.
Kurdish group Hengaw posted a video which it said showed police shooting at homes in the city and another in which gunfire and cries could be heard.
It reported that at least five civilians had been killed and 400 injured across the region since Sunday.
But it warned that the death toll might be higher because authorities were disrupting local internet and mobile networks.
Protests against the clerical establishment have swept across Iran since the death three weeks ago of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman from the western city of Saqqez who fell into a coma after being detained by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict hijab law.
The unrest is now considered the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979.
Iran’s leaders have accused foreign enemies and exiled opposition groups of fomenting “riots” that they will not tolerate.
Hengaw reported on Tuesday that over the past three days protests had taken place in 10 areas of Kurdistan, Kermanshah and West Azerbaijan provinces, with Sanandaj the epicentre of the unrest and the crackdown by authorities.
The Norway-based group posted videos which it said showed intense clashes between protesters and security forces in the city on Monday night. Repeated gunfire can be heard in the footage, as well as cries and shouts
The intense conflict between protestors and repressive forces in Baharestan street of Sanandaj.
— Hengaw Organization for Human Rights (@Hengaw_English) October 10, 2022
Monday, October 10, 2022#MahaaAmini#Kurdistan #سنندج pic.twitter.com/7vwidMEcOJ
Mazzaltov World News is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
According to Hengaw, other footage showed a crowd coming under attack, empty bullet cases, shotgun cartridges and tear-gas canisters left on the streets, and security personnel shooting directly towards homes.
Last night in #Sanadaj security forces stormed into neighbourhoods. sounds of gunfire could be heard. Many injured and arrested. In another part of the city revolutionary guards mistakenly fired on their own militias, at least one killed and more injured. #Mahsa_Amini pic.twitter.com/9HEVJbpoTG
— @jiyargol (@jiyargol) October 11, 2022
Mazzaltov World News is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
Videos of ongoing demonstrations by schoolgirls in Sanandaj and elsewhere in the region were also posted online.
In one, more than a dozen girls are seen waving their headscarves in the air in the middle of a road and shouting “woman, life, freedom”, which is the main slogan of protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death.
Another in Saqqez showed a crowd shouting “death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
During a visit to the city on Tuesday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi blamed “counter-revolutionary terrorist” groups for the “riots” and vowed that security forces would continue to respond with an iron hand, state media said.
At least 185 people, including 19 children, have been killed by security forces since the protests erupted on 17 September, according to Iran Human Rights, another Norway-based group.
The government has denied killing protesters and said that more than 20 security personnel have died.