Show caption Iranian protesters during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices in Tehran. It remains unclear how many people have been arrested, injured or killed in the protests. Photograph: -/AFP via Getty Images Iran UN urges Iran restraint amid reports of high protester death toll Concerns raised over alleged use of live ammunition against petrol price demonstrators Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor Tue 19 Nov 2019 15.48 GMT Share on Facebook

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The United Nations has urged Iran to end its shutdown of the internet and ensure its security services show restraint after the “clearly very serious” extent of casualties in protests that have swept the country in response to steep petrol price rises.

The office of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of live ammunition being used against demonstrators.

It remains unclear how many people have been arrested, injured or killed in the protests that began on Friday and spread across at least 100 cities and towns. Authorities shut down internet access to the outside world on Saturday and the outage remains in place across the nation of 80 million people.

“We are especially alarmed that the use of live ammunition has allegedly caused a significant number of deaths across the country,” the UN spokesman Rupert Colville said in a statement, adding that it had been “extremely difficult” to verify the overall death toll.

Iranian officials say 12 protesters and members of Iran’s security forces have died and more than 600 people have been arrested. But the UN put the figure for deaths in the dozens, and called on the government “immediately to re-establish Iranians’ access to the internet, as well as other forms of communication, which allow for freedom of expression and access to information”.

Iranians walk past a charred bank that was set ablaze during a demonstration in the central city of Isfahan. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

Amnesty International said on Monday it believed at least 106 people had been killed, citing “credible reports”.

“The organisation believes that the real death toll may be much higher, with some reports suggesting as many as 200 have been killed,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Iranian journalists have claimed in reports that shootings by the security forces number well over 100, and that families have been refused the chance to see their relatives’ bodies.

The fuel price rises represent yet another burden on Iranians, who have experienced a severe currency collapse after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and re-imposed crippling US sanctions.

Reports out of Iran confirm widespread and diffuse protests but the shutdown of the internet combined with tight state controls on the media make the scale of the protests difficult to assess.

Drivers switch off engines to block main streets of Tehran during a demonstration against a government decision to hike petrol prices, in Tehran. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/via Getty Images

The whole of the Islamic republic has been largely offline since the internet restrictions were imposed.

“Many professions and banks … have faced problems, and we have been trying to solve this,” the government spokesman Ali Rabiei told the semi-official news agency ISNA on Tuesday. “The internet will come back gradually in some provinces where there are assurances the internet will not be abused.”

The judiciary issued sharp warnings about those known to be sending videos of protests abroad. The judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili said on Tuesday that people who had been filming the protests and sending them to “alien and enemy networks” were being identified.

Esmaeili said in a news conference that the judiciary would adopt a “punitive” policy against those who “loot or destroy” public property.

He said everybody was “responsible for their actions” and called on people to separate their actions from those of “rioters”, and to instead refer them to law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

Government news outlets published detailed reports, with pictures and videos, of “spontaneous” counter-riot demonstrations that were being organised to show opposition to the agitators.

Cheap petrol is practically considered a birthright in Iran, home to the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves despite decades of economic woes since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Petrol in the country remains among the cheapest in the world, with the new prices jumping 50% to a minimum of 15,000 rials (35p) per litre.

Government officials continued to justify the surprise measure not as a revenue-raising effort, but as a means to cut distorting subsidies, lower domestic energy consumption and boost oil exports. The bulk of the revenue raised will be transferred into direct payments to the population, especially to the poor. Elaborate calculations appeared in the official media to show that the price increases would not go back into government coffers.

But there was an acknowledgement by both reformists and conservatives that the announcement had been badly handled, with little advance warning. Corruption at the highest level, openly admitted to by leading government figures, also creates distrust which means any major economic policy shift causes anger.