A photo shows a bin burning during a protest in Tehran. AFP

Official sources now say a total of seven people have been killed since protests erupted on Saturday over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from Iranian Kurdistan who died last week after being arrested in Tehran for "unsuitable attire".

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However, reports from Kurdish rights group Hengaw indicate a larger toll: it said three protesters were killed on Tuesday by security forces in or near Kurdish areas, where the unrest has been particularly intense and deadly.

There was no official confirmation of those deaths. Officials have denied that security forces have killed protesters.

Iranians walk in a street in the capital Tehran on Wednesday. AFP

Hengaw also said access to the internet had been cut in the Kurdistan province — a move that would hinder videos being shared from a region where the authorities have previously suppressed unrest by the Kurdish minority.

The minister of communications said he had been misquoted after news outlets cited him as saying the authorities might disrupt internet services for security reasons.

Amini's death has unleashed anger over issues including freedoms in the Islamic Republic and an economy reeling from sanctions. Women have waved and burnt their veils during protests, with some cutting their hair in public.

After beginning on Saturday at Amini's funeral in the Kurdish region, protests have engulfed much of the country, prompting confrontations as security forces have sought to suppress them.

A woman holds up a photo of Iranian Mahsa Amini outside Iran's general consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. AP

Videos shared on social media have also shown demonstrators damaging symbols of the Islamic Republic and confronting security forces.

One showed a man scaling the facade of the town hall in the northern city of Sari and tearing down an image of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution.

People rallied again on Wednesday in Tehran, with hundreds shouting "death to the dictator" at Tehran University, a video shared by 1500tasvir showed.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos.

State media and officials have depicted the unrest as riots by "anti-revolutionary elements".

Members of the Basij, a militia under the umbrella of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, held their own rallies in Tehran on Wednesday. "The morality police is just an excuse, what they target is the regime itself," they chanted in a video posted on 1500tasvir.

Reuters