TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Police in Iran have arrested an Afghan man suspected of stabbing to death 10 other farm workers after a land dispute, Iranian state media reported Monday. The frenzy in a remote village in southeastern Iran was a rare incident in the Islamic Republic.
The official IRNA news agency said four Iranians and six Afghans were killed, and a farm worker was injured in the disaster on Sunday and was hospitalized. According to the report, the suspect was mentally unbalanced.
A decades-long drought in Iran has led to more disputes over water resources and land with better access to water. Shotguns are the only weapon Iranians are legally allowed to possess.
Violent actions have escalated in Iran in recent years as the country’s economic conditions deteriorate amid crushing US sanctions that have contributed to soaring inflation and rising unemployment.
In May, an employee fired from one of Iran’s largest state-owned financial conglomerates rioted at his former workplace in western Iran, killing three and injuring five before turning the gun on himself.
In 2016, a 26-year-old man shot 10 family members and injured four others.