Tehran police shut down the Aladdin Mobile Phone Passage on August 9, kicking out all shop owners in the latest crackdown on the condemned building which in recent years has gained an illegally built extra floor, according to Fararu.com.

The “Aladdin Bazaar” was during the 1990s and 2000s previously the only mobile phone market in Iran, with independent retailers selling every brand possible, something made possible by the vast majority of its phones being smuggled in suitcases from Dubai and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Following the shutdown of the bazaar’s structure, shop owners argued with police and a large brawl broke out outside the building. Police subsequently called for extra men to tackle the growing aggression of the shop owners.

Tehran Police’s Colonel Morad Moradi said in an interview with Iran Students News Agency that extra officers were sent to the mall to deal with a fracas between vendors and police. Arrested participants were placed in custody, he added.

The more than twenty-year-old mobile market has been criticised by several government and Tehran officials for failing to meet the most basic building regulation standards.

In January this year, the Tehran Municipality began removing parts of the seventh floor of the old mall as it had been built illegally. The bill for the work was directed to the bazaar owner, Nasser Amani. However, Amani reportedly stopped the tearing down of the extra floor and parts of it are still standing.