Iran teen dies a month after falling into coma in metro: report

Iranian teenager Armita Garawand died on Saturday a month after falling into a coma following a disputed incident on Tehran’s metro, local media said.

“Armita Garawand, a student in Tehran, died an hour ago after intensive medical treatment and 28 days of hospitalisation in intensive care,” reported the Borna news agency affiliated with the youth ministry.

The 16-year-old ethnic Kurd was hospitalised in Tehran after she fell unconscious on the metro.

Her case was first reported on October 3 by Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw, which said she had been critically wounded during an incident on the underground train network.

Authorities say she suffered a sudden drop in blood pressure and denied that any “physical or verbal altercations” had taken place between her and other passengers.

But rights groups have said the teen was critically wounded during an alleged assault by members of Iran’s morality police.

It came just over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini, also a young Iranian Kurd, following her arrest by the morality police for allegedly breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women in an incident that sparked mass protests across Iran.

On Saturday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted doctors as saying that Garawand had “suffered a fall resulting in brain damage followed by continued convulsions, a decline in brain oxygen and a cerebral oedema after a sudden drop in blood pressure”.