TEHRAN: Iranian police detained more than 100 people for “disturbing public order” during a rally this week to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Security forces clashed with supporters of Iran’s opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when an annual state-organized rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the US embassy turned violent.

“Police arrested 109 people who created disorder and disturbed public order and security on the sideline of the rally on Wednesday,” said Azizollah Rajabzadeh, head of Tehran police, IRNA reported. “Some 62 of the detainees were jailed and the rest were released.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and their allied Basij militia had warned the opposition not to try to hijack the rally to revive protests against the clerical establishment after June’s disputed presidential election.

Defeated presidential candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who say are committed to reform, had urged supporters to take to the streets on Wednesday to protest against the government despite warnings from the security forces about “illegal gatherings.”

The Danish government said Saturday it was trying to make contact with a Danish journalism student arrested three days ago in Tehran. The Iranian authorities have confirmed 31-year-old Niels Krogsgaard is in custody, but have not said where, a Danish foreign ministry official said.

Meanwhile, Iran’s former crown prince backed a campaign of “civil disobedience and non-violence” Saturday to oust the government in Tehran and urged Western support, but warned against any armed intervention.

“The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, of military juntas in South America, of the former Soviet Union — all of it came at the hands of the people of those nations themselves,” Reza Pahlavi told the Daily Telegraph.

“None of this could have happened without foreign support, but that is not the same as an occupying army that comes in and changes a regime — I don’t see how that can ever be legitimate.”

The son of the late shah added: “Change must come to Iran by civil disobedience and non-violence, I stress that. We can’t have change at any cost... what happens must be the will of the people.”