At least 28 children killed, many arrested in Iran, say rights groups

At least 28 children have been killed in protests that have swept Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, with hundreds more mostly detained in adult prisons, rights groups inside and outside the country said.

Amini, 22, was pronounced dead days after police detained the Iranian Kurd last month for allegedly breaching the country's dress code for women.

Anger flared at her funeral and spread to become the biggest wave of protests to rock Iran in almost three years, despite a crackdown that has killed scores and seen hundreds arrested.

Iran's Children's Rights Protection Society condemned security forces for resorting to violence against children who have protested in schools and in the street.

"According to statistics, 28 children have been killed in these confrontations, most of which happened in the underprivileged province of Sistan-Baluchistan," the Tehran-based group said in a statement posted on its website Monday.

It criticised "families being kept in the dark on their children's whereabouts, cases proceeding without lawyers and lack of children's judges and police".

The group said the government "must be held accountable" and bring forward and punish "anyone, of any rank, who has been the cause of violence or harassment against children or their deaths".

Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi told Iranian media on October 5 that the "average age of the detainees from many of the recent protests was 15".