TEHRAN: Two people have been killed, eight injured and 145 arrested in unrest among the Kurds of western Iran, Iran's Interior Ministry said yesterday.

The deaths in the town of Saqqez followed rioting and a gun battle elsewhere in Kurdish-dominated territories.

The Interior Ministry Web site named the dead men in Saqqez as Mohammad Shariati, a 55-year-old retired teacher, and Farzad Mohammadi, 18.

It quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that police had denied firing their pistols, but investigators were looking into the type of shots fired to work out what had happened.

"Public and state-owned buildings, including banks, were damaged," the official said.