The reformist Jaras website also said security forces fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse protesters and also attacked a building housing an Iranian news agency, ISNA, where it said some demonstrators had sought shelter during the unrest.
At least two people were injured as police chased after demonstrators into the downtown building, a witness said.
In a sign the protests were spreading, another Tehran resident later said supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, chanting “Death to the dictator”, clashed with police near a mosque in northern Tehran where reformist former president Mohammad Khatami had been due to speak.
“They are chasing people and beating them and trying to disperse them, but even ordinary Iranians are stopping their cars and shout ‘Ya Hossein, Mirhossein’,” he said. Jaras said police also fired tear gas also during that incident.
The reformist Parlemannews website said dozens of hardliners disrupted Khatami’s speech by attacking the venue, which is located in a compound where late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini used to live.
“A few minutes ago over 50 hardliners used chains, batons and pepper spray to attack a venue … where Khatami was giving a speech,” it said.
The outbreak of clashes during a two-day major Shi’ite Muslim religious mourning ritual underlines escalating tension in the Islamic Republic, six months after a disputed election plunged the major oil producer into turmoil.
It was not possible to independently verify the Jaras reports as foreign media are banned from covering protests.
The official IRNA news agency said the “rioters” in central Tehran numbered only 150, adding they wanted to disrupt the mourning ceremonies but that police dispersed them.
Despite scores of arrests and security crackdowns, opposition protests have repeatedly flared since the June poll, which the opposition says was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election.
Jaras said, “Well-equipped security forces are clashing violently with backers of the opposition in many parts of downtown Tehran” and added later “riot police are shooting into the air in Enqelab square to disperse demonstrators who chant anti-government slogans”.
IRNA accused foreign media of exaggerating the “unsuccessful gathering of rioters” and of trying to encourage people to take to the streets.
