Iran schoolgirl dies after beating by security forces, say teachers

Retired Iranian football star Ali Daei said he did not believe Panahi had died of heart failure and dismissed as "rumours" the MP's claim that she had taken her own life

A 15-year-old Iranian girl died last week after being beaten during a raid by the security forces on her school, a teachers' union said, urging the authorities to stop killing "innocent" protesters.

Asra Panahi died on October 13, after "plainclothes officers attacked" Shahed High School in the northwestern city of Ardabil, the Co-ordinating Council of Teachers Syndicates said.

The pupils had been taken into town for an "ideological event" at a spot known to be a centre for protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death in the custody of Iran's notorious morality police.

Some pupils, who started "chanting slogans against discrimination and inequality", were "subjected to violence and insults by plainclothes and veiled women", the union said.

After being returned to school, they were beaten again, it said in a statement issued on Monday.

"After that one of the pupils named Asra Panahi unfortunately passed away in hospital and a number of students were arrested," it said, adding the beating left another pupil in a coma.

State television later aired an interview with her uncle in which he said she died of heart failure.