Gunfire rang out in Tehran late yesterday and pro-reform clerics stepped up criticism of Iran's authorities after more than a week of unprecedented popular defiance against the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
A witness said he heard shootings at Zaferaniyeh district in northern Tehran but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Government restrictions prevent correspondents working for foreign media from attending protests to report.
Northern Tehran is a stronghold of presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, whose supporters have been taking to rooftops after dusk to chant their defiance, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
At least 10 people were killed in the latest unrest to shake Tehran, state TV said yesterday, as Iranian leaders took aim at Western "meddling" in the post-election tumult that has triggered the worst crisis since the Islamic revolution.
The opposition stepped up its challenge to the country's Islamic rulers, with Mr Mousavi firing off an unprecedented criticism of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after a day of deadly violence in Tehran.
State TV said 10 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in Tehran on Saturday, blaming "terrorists" with firearms and explosives, bringing the overall toll reported by state media in a week of violence to at least 17.
Struggling to contain the massive street protests unleashed since the disputed June 12 election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office, Iranian leaders lashed out at Western nations, foreign media and the exiled opposition.
World leaders have voiced mounting alarm over the unrest, which has jolted the pillars of the Islamic regime and raised concerns over the future of the oil-rich Shiite Muslim powerhouse.
Witnesses said police and members of the Islamic volunteer Basij militia were patrolling flashpoint areas of Tehran but there did not appear to be any opposition demonstrations that have engulfed the capital every day for a week.
Mr Ahmadinejad bluntly told the US and Britain to stop interfering after Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused London of plotting for the past two years to sabotage the election.
The BBC said its correspondent in Tehran had been ordered to leave within 24 hours while the authorities warned the British media of further action if the "interference" continues. Dubai-based television channel Al-Arabiya also said its Tehran bureau had been ordered to remain closed indefinitely for "unfair reporting" of the election.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he rejected the charges that protesters were being "manipulated or motivated" by foreign countries and denounced what he said were Iran's effort to turn the election dispute into a "battle" with the outside world.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel - whose country is Tehran's major European trading partner - called for a vote recount and a halt to violence against demonstrators while Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said his country was "worried" by the loss of life.