Gunshots and blasts heard at Mahsa Amini protests in Iran

Gunshots and blasts heard at Mahsa Amini protests in Iran

Gunshots and explosions were heard in the Iranian Kurdish city of Sanandaj on Monday as the protests over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini continued to unfold across the country.

Government officials are struggling to end the protests led by young Iranians, especially women, previously regarded as uninterested by politics.

The British government is imminently expected to announce a first round of sanctions against Iranian officials deemed to be violently suppressing the demonstrations.

In an ominous development for the regime, more than 1,000 workers at the Bushehr and Damavand petrochemical plants carried out a threat to go on strike, chanting “death to the dictator”. The government will be desperate to ensure Iran’s profitable oil industry continues in production, and such protests do not spread through the industry,