Iran has introduced greater than 100 arrests nationwide over the thriller poisonings of hundreds of schoolgirls, charging that the unidentified alleged perpetrators might have hyperlinks with “hostile” teams.

In the wave of instances since late November, schoolgirls have suffered fainting, nausea, shortness of breath and different signs after reporting “unpleasant” odours on college premises, with some being handled in hospital.

State media reported late Saturday that the inside ministry had introduced the arrests over the suspected poison assaults in additional than 200 colleges, which have sparked concern and anger amongst pupils and their mother and father.

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“More than 100 people who were responsible for the recent school incidents were identified, arrested and investigated,” the ministry mentioned in a press release, carried by state information company IRNA.

“Among those arrested are people with hostile motives and with the aim of instilling terror in the people and students and to close schools.”

The ministry added that “fortunately, from the middle of the last week until today, the number of incidents in schools has decreased significantly, and there have been no reports of sick students”.

The assertion pointed at doable hyperlinks to an Albania-based exiled Iranian opposition group that Tehran considers a “terrorist” organisation, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK).

“The investigation of these criminal people, including the discovery of their possible connection with the terrorist organisations such as the MEK and others, is ongoing,” reported IRNA.

The poisonings began two months into the protests that gripped Iran following the September 16 demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an ethnic Kurd who had been arrested over an alleged violation of strict gown guidelines for girls.

Iran has blamed these protests, which it generally labels “riots”, on hostile forces overseas linked to its arch foes the United States, Israel and their allies.

More than 5,000 pupils have been affected in roughly 230 colleges throughout 25 out of Iran’s 31 provinces, the most recent official tally mentioned.

The ministry mentioned arrests had been made within the provinces of Tehran, Qom and Gilan within the north, Razavi Khorasan within the northeast, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Zanjan within the northwest, Kurdistan and Hamadan within the west, Khuzestan within the southwest and Fars within the south.

Supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had final Monday known as for the perpetrators of the “unforgivable crime” to be tracked down “without mercy”.