TEHRAN, July 26: A Canadian embassy official was summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday to hear a protest about the “murder” of a young Iranian near Vancouver, the news agency Irna said.

Gilles Poirier, the number two at the embassy and acting head of mission after Ottawa recalled its ambassador Philip Mackinnon in protest over the death in custody of a Canadian journalist, was told Tehran demanded the killers of Keyvan Tabesh be punished.

An Iranian foreign ministry official made Poirier away of the “formal protest by the Islamic Republic of Iran” after 18-year-old Tabesh was shot dead by a Canadian policeman on July 14.

He expressed Tehran’s “disquiet for the safety of Iranian citizens living in Canada and asked the diplomat for an immediate inquiry and a report on this affair as well as the identification of those reponsible who should be punished”, the agency said.—AFP