Angry parents protested in Iran's capital Tehran and other cities on Saturday over a wave of suspected poison attacks that have affected thousands of schoolgirls in dozens of schools, according to Iranian news agencies and social media videos.
The so-far unexplained attacks have affected schoolgirls across the country in recent months.
The country's health minister has said the girls have suffered "mild poison" attacks and some politicians have suggested the girls could have been targeted by hardline Islamist groups opposed to girls' education.
Some Iranian doctors warned that the chemical used against the schoolgirls cannot be available to any groups not linked to the state.
Iran blamed “enemies” for the attacks, without further elaboration.
Videos posted on social media showed parents gathered at schools to take their children home and some students being taken to hospitals by ambulance or buses.
A gathering of parents outside an Education Ministry building in western Tehran on Saturday to protest over the illnesses turned into an anti-regime demonstration, according to a video verified by Reuters.
Schoolgirls have been on the forefront of protests that have rocked the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in morality police custody in September after the young Kurdish-Iranian woman was arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
