Nine people were killed in rallies across Iraq on Sunday after security forces opened fire on groups of largely unarmed people demonstrating against government corruption.

Six were killed in southern cities as authorities sought to stunt growing protests by any means necessary.

Before dawn, three protesters were shot and at least 47 wounded by security forces in Nasiriyah, some 300 kilometres (200 miles) south of the capital Baghdad.

The demonstrators had gathered overnight on three bridges over the Euphrates River and when they came under security forces’ lethal fire. A fourth man who was shot in the head later succumbed to his injuries.

The deaths followed a night of chaos on Nasiyirah, Iraq’s fourth-largest city, which included government offices being set alight and the evacuation of infants and children from a hospital after tear gas was unleashed in the courtyard.

In the country’s far south, on the Arabian Gulf coast, three demonstrators were killed and around 50 wounded after security forces used live rounds on demonstrators blocking access to the southern port of Umm Qasr.