At least six people were killed and more than 30 injured on January 1 as protests over soaring prices and a collapsing currency spread from Tehran into western and south-western Iran, with the deadliest violence reported in the provinces of Lorestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, according to Iranian state media and international outlets.

The fatalities mark the sharpest escalation so far in unrest triggered by economic distress.

In Azna, a town in Lorestan province, three people were killed and 17 wounded after protesters attacked a police compound late on January 1, semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Police said assailants used stones and “cold and hot weapons” and attempted to seize the station’s armoury, prompting a violent confrontation in which several police vehicles were torched. Footage circulating online showed fires burning in the streets as gunfire rang out, though the circumstances of the deaths could not be independently verified.

Separately, two people were killed in Lordegan, in neighbouring Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, during clashes between protesters and security forces, Fars said, citing an unnamed official. The agency did not identify the victims or say whether they were demonstrators or members of the security forces. A Kurdish rights group, Hengaw, said both were protesters, a claim not confirmed by authorities.

State television also reported the death of one Basij member, a volunteer force linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, during unrest in Kouhdasht, another city in Lorestan.

Officials said 13 Basij and police personnel were injured there by stone-throwing during clashes. Protesters interviewed by Persian-language outlets disputed the official account, saying the man was a civilian shot during the chaos.

Unrest was also reported across Isfahan, Hamedan, Kermanshah and parts of Fars province, where shop closures, scattered strikes and street gatherings showed mounting anger over rising food prices and falling purchasing power. In the town of Jonqan, in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, unknown assailants set fire to the local office of the Friday prayer leader after a protest turned violent, Mehr News Agency reported.

The protests began December 28 among Tehran shopkeepers following another sharp fall in the rial on the open market and have since drawn in students from at least ten universities. They are the most widespread demonstrations since the 2022 uprising sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, though on a smaller scale.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has acknowledged what he called protesters’ “legitimate demands” and said his administration would seek dialogue with trade unions and merchants. At the same time, the prosecutor general warned that any attempt to turn economic protests into insecurity would face a “decisive” response.

Iran is grappling with inflation running near 40%, a battered currency and the cumulative impact of years of Western sanctions, pressures that have left provincial towns particularly exposed.

Authorities declared a midweek bank holiday, officially to conserve energy amid cold weather, a move widely seen as an effort to limit gatherings.