Iran has asked the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance for the first time since 1962 to help it fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Abdolnaser Hemmati, the head of Iran's central bank, said he had requested a $5 billion emergency loan to help fight the epidemic, which has infected at least 10,000 Iranians.

Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, said the request was made as soon as Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, announced a Rapid Financial Instrument support for affected countries.

"Our Central Bank requested access to this facility immediately. IMF/IMF Board should adhere to Fund's mandate, stand on right side of history & act responsibly," he tweeted.

The IMF has not lent money to Iran since 1962.

The request may be opposed by the US, which has been pursuing a policy of "maximum pressure" on the Iranian economy in a bid to force Tehran to accept new restrictions on its nuclear programme and halt its funding of militia groups across the Middle East.

The IMF predicted Iran's economy would contract by 9.5 per cent in 2019 as a result of the sanctions.

Iran said on Thursday it had had identified 1,075 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 10,075. The death toll stands at 429, with 75 deaths in the past day.

Satellite images emerged on Thursday showing what appeared to be fresh excavations at a graveyard in Qom, the holy city south of Tehran where the Iranian outbreak began.

The images, taken by the US firm Maxar Technologies and published by the Washington Post, showed two new trenches with a total length of about 100 yards long had been dug at the city's Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery by March 1.

The images, which the Telegraph could not immediately verify, appear to be consistent with several social media videos from the cemetery purporting to show a special section that had been set aside for coronavirus victims.

The IMF said on March 4 that it is preparing a number of instruments to assist economies hit by the pandemic, including rapid-disbursing emergency financing, which could amount up to $50 billion for low-income and emerging-market countries.

The IMF's Rapid Finance Instrument was set up in 2011 to provide low-interest emergency loans to governments facing crises like natural disasters. It has paid out five times before, including to Ecuador after the 2016 earthquake.