Marivan, Iran - Iranian security forces opened fire with live ammunition and tear gas on demonstrators in the northwestern city of Marivan in Kurdistan Province on Sunday, eyewitnesses reported.

The demonstrators were protesting at the death of a Kurdish female student in the city on Saturday. They are reported to have attacked the offices of the city's parliamentary representatives.

According to the Hengaw human rights organization, which monitors the treatment of Iran's Kurdish population from Norway, dozens of demonstrators were injured, with deaths feared. There was no independent confirmation of the reports.

According to Hengaw, the female student was killed after participating in the protests. Iranian state media rejected the reports, saying the security forces had gone into action after young people had been killed during the protests.

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Since the violence erupted some seven weeks ago, the deaths of several young demonstrators have led to a cycle of violence when protesters go onto the streets at the end of the customary 40 days of mourning.

The Marivan protests came after state media reported that four police officers had been killed in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

Over recent weeks there have been violent clashes between demonstrators and the security forces in the province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.

On September 30, dozens of protesters were killed in the provincial capital of Zahedan in a clash that has become known as "Bloody Friday."

An influential Sunni clergy in the region, Maulawi Abdulhamid, has recently expressed criticism of the government's policy regarding the demonstrators in the largely Shiite country, with other local clerics backing his words.

Abdulhamid has called for a referendum on the demonstrators' demands.

The mass protests were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. She was arrested by the morality police for failure to comply with the country's compulsory headscarf rules for women.

Since Amini's death on September 16, tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating against the repressive course of the government of the Islamic Republic.

The protests have become one of the biggest tests of the country's leadership since the state was founded.