Fire Festival in Iran leaves 26 dead and more than 4,000 injured amid anti-government protests

March 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday night in different parts of Iran to celebrate Chaharshanbe Suri, one of the first celebrations for the Iranian New Year or Nowruz, which has been marked by anti-government protests and has resulted in 26 dead and more than 4,000 wounded.

The head of emergencies at the national level of Iran, Jafar Miyad Far, has detailed that most of the deaths from the celebration, a dance of fire similar to the Festival of San Juan, have been registered in provinces such as Tehran, Tabriz, Hamadan or West Azerbaijan province, IRNA news agency reported.

The Fire Festival, which is held on the night of the last Tuesday to Wednesday of the Iranian year — which ends on March 20 — has coincided with the anti-government protests that have broken out in the country following the death of the young woman Mahsa Amini for not wearing her veil properly.

In this way, the celebration has had a protest character, since numerous women have thrown their veils into the fire and hundreds of protesters have launched fireworks at the police forces.

Specifically, some videos analyzed by Iran International show numerous people gathered in the street and around the fires, singing songs against the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as against the Government, in different parts of Iran. , as in Kamiarán, in the province of Kurdistan.