THREE members of the Iranian security forces have been stabbed to death by rioters near Tehran, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported Monday.

The assailants wielding knives and machetes ambushed the three — a Revolutionary Guard and two members of the Basij militia — west of the capital, the news agencies reported.

The deaths take to at least five the number of people confirmed to have been killed in violent demonstrations that erupted across Iran against a surprise petrol price hike.

One of the three was identified as Morteza Ebrahimi, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and father of a newborn child, according to Fars.

When the demonstrations broke out Friday, drivers stopped their vehicles on major thoroughfares in Tehran to block traffic.

They soon turned violent and spread to more than 20 cities and towns across Iran, with banks, petrol stations and other public property set alight and shops looted.

Iran’s economy has been battered since May last year when U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 nuclear agreement and reimposed crippling sanctions.(SD-Agencies)