MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - Seven people were killed in Tehran when shots were fired into a group of protesters disputing the results of the presidential election, Iran's Press TV reported on Tuesday, citing state radio.

Payam radio said seven people were killed and several injured when protesters attempted to attack a militia compound close to Azadi Square and "vandalize public property."

Press TV reported, however, that as the crowd was beginning to disperse in the evening after a peaceful rally, unidentified gunmen fired shots into the crowd. It added that the shooters were not in uniform.

A source in one of the republic's emergency services told AFP that eight people were killed.

Tehran and other Iranian cities were swept by mass protests at the weekend over alleged vote fraud in the landslide reelection of the hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The country's interior ministry had earlier banned the rallies and said live ammunition could be used against the protestors.

According to the official results of Friday's elections, Ahmadinejad received 62.63% of the vote, while his main rival, reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi came second with 33.75% of the vote.

The Guardian Council of clerics, which oversees elections in Iran, is examining Mousavi's allegations of vote rigging. The former prime minister claimed victory after the polls closed, and told Monday's rally in Tehran that he was ready for fresh elections.

The protests, the worst since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, continued in defiance of a government ban on Monday, with sporadic shooting reported in the Iranian capital, in which one person is believed to have been killed.