Police in Iran have been accused of shooting a 20-year-old civil engineering student dead at an anti-regime protest.

Hamidreza Rouhi – a student of the Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Qods Branch – was fatally hit by two bullets allegedly fired by security police at a street demonstration in Shahr-e ziba neighbourhood, western Tehran, on 17th November.

Footage purportedly of his dead body shows how one of the bullets apparently hit him in the chest.

News agencies affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) originally claimed that Hamidreza was a Basiji – a member of the Basij, which is a paramilitary volunteer militia under the organisation of the IRGC.

But Fars News Agency – a semi-official news agency of the Government of Iran -downgraded Hamidreza’s “martyrdom” to “death” after it emerged on social media that he had gone to the protest not as a security official but as a demonstrator.

Hamshahri newspaper – owned by the Municipality of Tehran – claimed he had been killed by protesters and further claimed that former US National Security Advisor John Bolton and other “anti-Iranian officials” had armed protesters in Iran.

The day after Hamidreza’s death, protesters gathered in Shahr-e ziba and in front of the late student’s home to chant ‘Death to the dictator’ and other slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Anti-regime slogans were also chanted at his funeral on 19th November. At another ceremony the following day, protesters alleged that Hamidreza had been killed by Basijis.

The ongoing protests in Iran have so far killed at least 378 people, including 47 children, and injured at least 1,160, according to independent estimates.

It is also understood that more than 17,000 people have been arrested so far.