TEHRAN: More than 100 students were hospitalised in Iran after a new spate of suspected gas attacks on girls’ schools Wednesday, media outlets in the Islamic republic reported.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls across Iran, in what one government official has said could be an attempt to force the closure of girls’ schools.

The president’s website said Ebrahim Raisi had assigned Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to provide “continuous information on the results of the investigation” into the attacks.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls in what one government official said could be an attempt to force the closure of girls’ schools in the Islamic republic.