Reportedly new video footage from Iran has appeared on internet depicting police vehicles running over demonstrators on Tehran's streets. The video was posted by US news channel CNN.

The clip shows how at least one person lying on the ground is run over by a green and white police truck as it ploughs into a crowd of people. It is unclear whether the person on the ground is dead or not.

CNN says it cannot vouch for the authenticity of the footage, which the news channel says may have been recorded last Sunday when opposition supporters staged protests during a Shiite religious celebration in Ashura.

Iranian authorities have said that eight people died during Sunday's demonstrations but have rejected opposition charges that they were killed by security forces. At least 300 opposition supporters are still being detained and almost 20 prominent opposition leaders have been rounded up and arrested.

The government has also called on its supporters to hold nationwide rallies to show their condemnation of the opposition demonstrators' "desecration" of Ashura.

Photo Iranian police by ANP