TEHRAN: Iran has arrested the family of a young man killed in street violence that flared during last month鈥檚 protests against fuel price hikes, Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday.

The family of Pouya Bakhtiari, who was 鈥渒illed suspiciously during the recent riots,鈥� had been invited for talks with authorities, Mehr said, citing what it called an informed source.

They were found to have been 鈥渃arrying out a counter-revolutionary project鈥� and 鈥渁nti-structural activities,鈥� said the agency, which is close to moderate conservatives in Iran.

鈥淐onsequently, these elements were arrested by a judicial order in order to protect the order and the security of the honorable people and others damaged by the rioters,鈥� it said without specifying which family members were taken into custody.

Bakhtiari was reportedly killed in Karaj city, west of Tehran, in street violence that erupted in mid-November during nationwide protests over a shock decision to hike petrol prices by as much as 200 percent. He was 27. His Instagram account, which is now reportedly run by his father, announced a ceremony marking 40 days since his death would be held at Karaj cemetery on Thursday.

It was still active with more than 18,000 followers on Tuesday.

Officials in Iran have yet to issue an overall death toll for the unrest, but international human rights group Amnesty International has put the number at more than 300.

An Iranian security official rejected a foreign media report on Monday that the figure was as high as 1,500, saying it was based on 鈥渇alse propaganda.鈥�

鈥淭his way of news writing and making accusations is essentially nothing special,鈥� said Alireza Zarifian Yeganeh, head of the information and communications secretariat of Iran鈥檚 Supreme National Security Council.

Quoted by the Tasnim news agency, he dismissed the reports as 鈥渁 series of ludicrous claims.鈥�

鈥淎nd when you would ask this media about its source, it would refer to some invisible creatures and there is no possibility of verification.鈥�

The days of unrest in Iran from Nov. 15 saw police stations attacked, shops looted and banks and petrol stations torched as authorities imposed a weeklong internet blackout.

Videos that have surfaced since purport to show scenes from the crackdown that followed, including footage of security forces firing at unarmed demonstrators or beating them with batons.

The US, France and Germany have all condemned Iran over the bloodshed.

Iran has repeatedly denied casualty figures issued abroad.

In a report on Dec. 2, state television charged that foreign media had been 鈥渉yping up鈥� the death toll.

It also said that security forces 鈥渉ad no choice but to resort to authoritative and tough confrontation in order to save people from the hands of the rioters, and a number of rioters were killed.鈥�