News Service from House Harris

MID: Tehran riots intensify in election protest

TEHRAN, June 13 AFP - Police fired tear gas at rioters in Tehran as supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi swept through the Iranian capital on Saturday, some pelting stones at baton-wielding policemen in protest at the disputed election results.

"Down with the dictator! Mousavi, retrieve our votes for us!" shouted the crowds as they streamed into Tehran's main squares, with violence erupting in some areas on a scale not seen since student riots a decade ago.

The protests began as final results from Friday's election showed incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad securing a landslide win with almost 63 per cent of the vote, almost double the figure for the more moderate Mousavi.

Angry crowds first emerged near Mousavi's campaign office in central Tehran, where protesters, including women, were hit with sticks as riot police on motorbikes moved in to break up the gathering, an AFP correspondent said.

"They have ruined the country and they want to ruin it more over the next four years," shouted an irate mob outside Mousavi's office.

The crowds swelled after Mousavi warned that the outcome of the closely-fought election could lead to "tyranny" and protests against what he said were "numerous and blatant irregularities".

Violent incidents were reported elsewhere across the capital, with police also pelting stones at the crowds and firing tear gas to disperse them, while one mob burnt two police motorbikes.

Near the interior ministry where the results were announced, hundreds shouted "Death to the dictator!"

Another group of angry supporters even beat a policeman badly, leaving him with blood streaming from his face, the correspondent said. The policeman tried to seek refuge in a nearby house but the residents pushed him out.

Some people who tried to escape the clouds of tear gas were chased by police into nearby buildings where they were beaten despite pleas to be set free; others were given shelter by local residents.

The election results stunned supporters of Mousavi, whose bid for the presidency had gathered momentum in the final weeks before Friday's election.

"I fear they played with people's vote," one woman said.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards -- seen as backing Ahmadinejad -- had warned they would crack down on any "velvet revolution", referring to Mousavi's boisterous "green" campaign of mass carnival-like demonstrations.

Police had warned that any gathering by supporters of any candidate after the vote was illegal.

"We are going to stay here. We are going to die here," demonstrators shouted as one woman was struck on her back by policeman's baton while others were kicked, the correspondent said.

"The time of dancing and shouting is over. They are going to break your leg if you stand here," a senior policeman was heard telling one man.

Another man lying on a sidewalk, wearing a green shirt in the signature colour of Mousavi's campaign, told AFP that a policeman beat him even as he just stood quietly at the side of the road.

"I was just standing here and they hit me on the back. I was just watching."

In one square the crowd continued to shout "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) as police hit them with sticks to thwart any attempt at mass gathering.

Police beefed up their presence in main streets and squares, especially the area houses Mousavi's office, while dozens of men were handcuffed and detained in an interir ministry compound.

A video on YouTube showed some protesters shouting an adaptation of a chant by Iranians against the shah during the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Mahmoud, the traitor, Mahmoud the liar, who has devastated the people and sent them to exile."