Shooting in Olympic Village Square of Tehran Leaves One Dead

Tehran police announced that during a chase of three thieves and robbers in Olympic Square, Tehran, a female thief was shot dead and one male thief was injured. According to ILNA news agency on Tuesday (July 16), the Tehran police information center reported that the third thief, who initially fled, has surrendered to the police. Iranian media have referred to these individuals as 'robbers' who early this morning 'robbed all documents and belongings' from a man and shortly after 'contacted him by phone' to say they were willing to return his documents and belongings in exchange for 'cash'. The IRIB news agency reported that this 'robbery' occurred in the street, but Tasnim news agency stated that a man named 'Sohrab' was pursued by the occupants of a Peugeot 405 after withdrawing money from an ATM, and when he arrived home, the robbers forcibly entered his house. This news agency reported that the occupants of the robbers' vehicle were 'two boys and a young girl'. According to the report, this 'robbery' took place at one o'clock in the morning and the robbers were armed with cold weapons, who assaulted 'Sohrab' after entering his home. They demanded 700,000 tomans in cash in exchange for returning his documents and belongings. Following the victim's call to the police and coordination with officers regarding the meeting place and the exchange of money and documents in Olympic Square, the police attempted to arrest the robbers, but they fled. During the chase between the police and the robbers, the female passenger in the back of the vehicle (a young girl) was killed by gunfire and one of the front passengers was also injured. The other occupant of the vehicle (the driver), who had fled, was reported to have either been arrested by the officers or surrendered to the police. Young Journalists Club initially reported that the vehicle involved in the incident at Olympic Square was 'suspected of carrying drugs' and after ignoring the police's stop order while fleeing in the streets around Olympic Square, it collided with a 206 vehicle and was forced to get stuck in a dead-end street. The Tehran police information center identified the robbers as having a history of 'kidnapping and rape'. Robbery is one of the petty crimes in Iran that has seen a significant increase in recent years, and for this reason, the police are taking harsher measures against criminals to instill fear and reduce the occurrence of such crimes.