Fourteen Afghan asylum seekers have reportedly died in Iran after police opened fire on a car they were travelling in. The incident occurred on Wednesday in the central province of Yazd. A group of Afghans were packed into a car and travelling to Tehran.
The gunfire appears to have caused the car to burst into flames. Two eyewitnesses told Avatoday that 14 people "have been burned alive."
Graphic video received by Avatoday shows a car and bodies in flames. At least one person appears to have escaped the inferno, according to the video.
Iran is hosting nearly one million Afghan and returns tens of thousands to Afghanistan every month, many of them forcibly.
Dozens of Afghan asylum seekers have been killed in Iran this year. On April 3, at least 25 Afghan refugees were shot, some fatally, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
Tens of Afghan migrants drowned after being tortured and thrown into a river by Iranian border authorities in early May.
