Iranian police, protesters clash in Tehran - unofficial reports

MOSCOW, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - Another rally in the Iranian capital Tehran was brutally put down on Wednesday, according to unofficial Twitter reports.

Shortly before noon GMT crowds of protestors began to gather at the Baharestan square near the country's parliament. An hour later, first reports of violence came from Iranian Internet users, who said police violently clashed with protestors using live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

"Baharestan situation is too bad, police shoot," a user of the social networking tool Twitter wrote.

Further reports said police did not allow ambulance vehicles in to help the injured. According to one report, a young woman was injured and could not be taken to hospital.

"In Baharestan Sq. there is a police shooting, a girl is shot and the police is preventing people from going to help this shot girl," an eyewitness wrote on the user-generated ireport.com website.

By 13:00 GMT a nearby metro station was closed and the area cordoned off by "armed forces, plain clothes and motor riders."

An hour and a half later it was reported that cellular network had gone in the area, presumably to prevent protestors from reporting about violence and sharing images and video.

According to the most recent reports, at least three people were shot during Wednesday's protests.

"I see many ppl with broken arms/legs/heads - blood everywhere - pepper gas like war... ppl run into alleys and militia standing there waiting - from 2 sides they attack ppl in middle of alleys..." a Twitter message said.

According to a report by Reuters, only around 200 people protested in Tehran on Wednesday. The protesters, however, have their own point of view.

"Although things seem to be calming down in iran to outsiders, it is not. This is only because they have arrested the people who were getting the news out for the world to see. They are following IP addresses and crashing into peoples homes to arrest these people and to prevent the news from getting out," an Iranian blogger wrote.