TEHRAN, March 2: Two Arabs convicted of carrying out a deadly bomb attack in Iran’s restive oil city of Ahvaz were hanged from a crane in front of thousands of people on Thursday.

Ethnic Arabs Ali Affrawi and Mehdi Navasseri had been found guilty of planting two bombs that killed six people dead and injured close to 100 others in a busy shopping area of the city last October.

“There were thousands of people watching, although some of the families of the victims arrived late and were very angry,” a resident of the city who witnessed the hangings said.

The executions were carried out on a city centre bridge around one hour earlier than had been scheduled ‘so as to prevent traffic problems’.

The witness said the two convicts, both of whom were in their early 20s, were slowly lifted from the ground by a crane — with the nooses providing death by strangulation rather than a broken neck.

With their hands tied behind their backs, the pair were left dangling in front of onlookers for 40 minutes.

State television carried footage of the execution, with the crowd being egged on to chant ‘Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to England!’

—AFP