Paris (France) (AFP) – Iranian security forces fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators at the Tehran bazaar, as an NGO said more than two dozen people had been killed in a crackdown on the most significant protests to hit the Islamic republic in three years.

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In social media footage verified by AFP, protesters at the scene could also be heard shouting slogans including "Pahlavi will return" and "Seyyed Ali will be overthrown" -- references to the monarchy ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Dozens of people are seen shouting "freedom" and "shameless" in footage posted by IHR and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA).

Security forces then fire tear gas at the protesters, who rush to disperse as acrid smoke rises from the ground.

The official IRNA news agency said "some" people were arrested, without giving numbers.

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According to official announcements in Iranian media, at least 12 people have been killed since the protests began, including members of the security forces.

But IHR said: "At least 27 protesters have been killed by gunfire or other forms of violence carried out by security forces in eight provinces. Five of those killed have been verified to have been children."

It added that more than 1,000 people had been arrested nationwide.

IHR said security forces killed at least six people in a single incident alone on Saturday when they opened fire on protesters in the Malekshahi district of the western Ilam province.

It also accused authorities of raiding the main hospital in Ilam the day after to detain injured protesters.

Amnesty International said on Tuesday that the "attack" on the hospital "exposes yet again how far the Iranian authorities are willing to go to crush dissent".

There have been reports of a significant number of arrests in the city of Yasuj in western Iran which has seen several protest actions in the last days, according to social media footage.

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