Iran's Revolutionary Guards have warned of "decisive" action if protests in the country continue.

At least five people have been killed in the unrest, which began on Friday after the announcement of fuel rationing and a 50% hike in the price of petrol.

At least 100 banks, buildings and cars were torched, according to state media.

Iranian authorities shut down the internet on Saturday but videos shared online before then contained sounds of gunfire and images of badly injured people.

In a statement, the country's main security force said: "If necessary we will take decisive and revolutionary action against any continued moves to disturb the people's peace and security."


Fars, a semi-official news agency in Iran, said there had been more than 87,000 protesters across the country and that around 1,000 had been arrested.

The streets were reportedly calmer on Monday and General Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, insisted security forces had acted with "restraint and patience".

Image: A petrol station in Eslamshahr, near the Iranian capital of Tehran, was targeted

Iran is home to the world's fourth-largest crude oil reserves and cheap oil is almost seen as a birthright but even this has not saved the economy from difficulty.

Since US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the 2015 nuclear deal last year and imposed sanctions instead, jobs have become scarce and the currency has collapsed.

When the nuclear deal was put on ice, Iran's rial was trading at 32,000 to $1 but this has worsened to more than 123,000 to $1.

Sky News diplomatic editor Dominic Waghorn said: "Iran's government had claimed US sanctions were uniting the people behind them but these scenes [of the protests] suggest a different story."

Parliamentary elections are due in February and the unrest, the worst since 2017, will be another challenge for President Hassan Rouhani.

Mr Rouhani had said the petrol price rises would help raise money for handouts to 18 million families struggling families, which begin this week.

US Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo said he was monitoring the protests and was deeply concerned by reports of fatalities.

But Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back with: "A regime that impedes food and medicine to ordinary people, including the elderly and the sick, by economic terrorism can never get away with the obscene claim of supporting the Iranian people."