Two teenage girls have vanished after being seized and tortured by security officials in Iran accused of taking part in protests across the country.

The two teens – named as Farnoush Esmi and Parya Faramarzi – were arrested in the cities of Hamadan and Shiraz.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says there has been no word of them since.

One is said to have been tortured and hospitalised twice since her arrest.

Farnoush, 18, is a blogger from Hamadan in Iran’s west and her family have refused to discuss or comment after being warned against talking to the media.

But it is believed that she is currently being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

The other girl – 16-year-old Parya from Pasargad in southern Fars province was also arrested and is apparently being held in Adelabad prison in Shiraz.

Her parents, too, have refused to discuss her arrest after being warned off by the security services.

She had apparently been seized during a raid on her home and reports say that she has been tortured and twice ended up hospitalised.

The two girls are just the latest in a number of arrests of students and young people as part of the ongoing protests over the death of Mahsa Amini after being arrested by the morality police for failing to wear the hijab properly.

They have apparently been almost 20,000 people arrested in the protests that followed the young woman’s death, according to dissident groups. Iranian officials, however, have rejected this number and refer to those arrested as “terrorists”.