Two killed in Iran protests as Boris Johnson says he is watching developments 'with concern'

Two protesters taking part in rallies in Iran have been killed amid a wave of anti-government protests.

A semi-official news agency reported the deaths on Sunday and said the protesters had died from gunshot wounds overnight.

They are the first deaths attributed to the ongoing protests in the country, which began on Thursday.

The demonstrations over economic woes plaguing Iran appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the protests that followed the country's disputed 2009 election.

In Doroud, a city 200 miles southwest of Tehran, in Iran's western Lorestan province, protesters gathered for an unauthorized rally that lasted into the night Saturday, Mehr news agency reported.

Mehr quoted Habibollah Khojastepour, the security deputy of Lorestan's governor, as saying the illegal gathering ignited clashes. The two protesters were killed in the clashes, he said.

"The gathering was to be ended peacefully, but due to the presence of the (agitators), unfortunately, this happened," Mr Khojastepour was quoted as saying.

He did not offer a cause of death for the two protesters, but said "no bullets were shot from police and security forces at the people."

Tensions have been heightened by protesters sharing messages on the Telegram messaging app, which authorities blocked on Sunday along with Instagram.

Boris Johnson has voiced concerns about the threat of a clampdown on protests in Iran, saying citizens must have the right to demonstrate peacefully.

The British Foreign Secretary, who visited Tehran earlier this month, said he was "watching events with concern".

He tweeted: "Watching events in Iran with concern. Vital that citizens should have the right to demonstrate peacefully."

Videos circulating on social media late Saturday appeared to show fallen protesters in Doroud as gunshots sounded in the background.

Thousands have taken to the streets of cities across Iran, beginning on Thursday in Mashhad, the country's second-largest city and a holy site for Shiite pilgrims.

At least 50 protesters have been arrested since Thursday, authorities said Saturday. State TV said some protesters chanted the name of the U.S.-backed shah, who fled into exile just before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and later died.

On Sunday, the ILNA news agency reported that authorities have arrested some 80 protesters in the city of Arak, 173 miles south of Tehran.

Iran's economy has improved since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions. Tehran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars' worth of Western aircraft.

Unemployment, however, remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 per cent again. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 percent, which a government spokesman has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have been the spark for the economic protests.

While the protests have sparked clashes, Iran's hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and its affiliates have not intervened as they have in other unauthorized demonstrations since the 2009 election.

Some analysts outside of Iran have suggested that may be because the economic protests initially just put pressure on the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the nuclear deal.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press