Protests erupted after Friday prayers in the provincial capital of Zahedan but also in other areas of the sprawling border province, including the town of Khash, they said.

Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) posted video of bloodied victims being carried away and said “several had been killed and injured in Khash”, with security forces firing from rooftops.

One dead protester was named by the London-based Baloch Activists Campaign (BAC), which said that security forces were shooting “with intent to kill” and hospitals were overwhelmed with wounded.

Videos posted on social media showed scenes of chaos in Khash, with smoke filling the air and residents rushing to help the wounded.

The official Irna news agency said several police had been wounded by stone-throwing protesters who set fire to a police patrol post.

Sistan-Baluchestan is populated by the Baluch ethnic minority, who mostly follow Sunni Islam rather than the Shiite faith predominant in Iran, and activists have long complained of discrimination against the province by Iran’s Shiite clerical leadership.

Unrest erupted in the province two weeks into nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran on Sept 16 following her arrest by Iran’s morality police.

The trigger was the alleged rape in custody of a 15-year-old-girl by a police commander in the province’s port city of Chabahar.

Activists accuse Iranian security forces of massacring more than 80 people in a “bloody Friday” in Zahedan on Sept 30.

IHR said in total more than 100 people have been killed in the wave of unrest in the province.

Tensions rose further in Zahedan this week when a Shiite cleric was killed in what Iranian reports described as a drive-by shooting.