Five French nationals are currently held in Iran

France urged its nationals to leave Iran as soon as possible, stating risk of arbitrary detentions

PARIS:

There are now five French nationals being held in Iran, French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna told French radio on Tuesday, after France last week said it was looking to verify if a fifth French national had been held during protests in Iran.

Last week, France urged its nationals to leave Iran as soon as possible, saying they were exposed to the risk of arbitrary detentions.

Protests have broken out in Iran over the last month following the death of 22-year old woman Mahsa Amini. Amini died while in the custody of Iran's morality police.

Iranian security forces intensified a crackdown on anti-government protests in several Kurdish cities on Monday, social media posts and videos showed, pressing efforts to quell unrest ignited by the death of a woman in morality police custody.

Protests have swept Iran since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from Iran's Kurdish region, died on Sept. 16 while being held for "inappropriate attire", marking one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

While university students have played a pivotal role in the protests with dozens of universities on strike, unconfirmed reports on social media showed workers at Abadan and Kangan oil refineries and the Bushehr Petrochemical Project had joined in.

An oil ministry spokesperson did not immediately reply to a phone call from Reuters seeking comment.

A combination of mass protests and strikes by oil workers and Bazaar merchants helped to sweep the clergy to power in the Iranian revolution four decades ago.

Tensions have been especially high between authorities and the Kurdish minority which human rights groups say has long been oppressed - a charge the Islamic Republic denies.