Police have fired tear gas and fought with protesters in a central Iranian city that has been the location for days of demonstrations demanding government action over a drought.
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Videos published on social media, and others from activists, show police and protesters clashing in the dry bed of the Zayandehrud River in the city of Isfahan, 340km south of the capital Tehran.
The videos correspond to reporting by The Associated Press and satellite images of the area, as well as some semi-official Iranian news agency accounts of the unrest.
Videos from Human Rights Activists in Iran show demonstrators throwing stones at police, while others depict bloodied protesters, including one man who appeared to have gun-pellet wounds to his back.
The Iranian semiofficial Fars news agency said a heavy presence of security forces brought the gathering of some 500 people in Isfahan to an end.
A separate report, carried by the semi-official Tasnim agency, said unknown perpetrators had on Thursday night damaged a pipeline that transfers water from Isfahan to other provinces.
Some people in Isfahan later reported later on Friday that mobile internet service was disrupted in the city. The group NetBlocks reported an outage in recent days that also affected the southwestern city of Ahvaz amid water protests there.
Iran has previously shut down mobile and landline connections to halt protests, including during a nationwide shutdown during 2019 protests over rising government-set fuel prices that Amnesty International says saw more than 300 people killed.
Farmers reportedly ended a long protest in the area on Thursday after authorities promised to compensate them for losses suffered in drought-stricken areas of central Iran.
Drought has been a problem in Iran for 30 years, but has worsened over the past decade, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The Iran Meteorological Organisation says an estimated 97 per cent of the country now faces some level of drought.
The farming area around Isfahan was once well supplied by the Zayandehrud River, but nearby factories have increasingly drawn on it over the years.
The river once flowed under historic bridges in Isfahan's city centre, but is now a barren strip of dirt.
In 2012, farmers clashed with police in a town in Isfahan province, breaking a water pipe that diverted some 50 million cubic metres of water a year to a neighbouring province.
Similar protests have continued sporadically since then.
Australian Associated Press
