Violence in Iran after election result

Thousands of Iranians have demonstrated after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the country's presidential election. Riot police on motorcycles beat supporters of presidential challenger Mirhossein Mousavi who were protesting on Saturday against Mr Ahmadinejad's disputed victory. Security forces chased and arrested some of the demonstrators staging a sit-in at Tehran's Vanak Square, one of the capital's busiest intersections. At least three people were injured in the clash, which broke out after the Interior Ministry announced the hardline incumbent's resounding victory in Friday's vote. Mr Ahmadinejad took nearly twice as many votes as former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi - upsetting widespread expectations that the race would at least go to a second round. Mr Mousavi, a moderate, said in a statement: "I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardise the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny." He said in a separate statement that members of his election headquarters had been beaten "with batons, wooden sticks and electrical rods." Up to 2,000 Mousavi supporters took part in the sit-in in the middle of the road, chanting: "Mousavi take back our vote! What happened to our vote?" Hundreds of his backers later gathered in side streets near Vanak, chanting anti-Ahmadinejad slogans and bringing traffic to a standstill. They shouted: "We are Iranians too" and "Mousavi is our president". Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged defeated presidential election candidates on Saturday to avoid provocations and to support the victor, Ahmadinejad.

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ITN | June 13, 2009

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