Iranian authorities say the death toll from an air strike on a girls' school they claim was launched by the United States and Israel has surpassed 165 and search efforts to recover the dead have ended.
Vision from the strike first emerged on social media on Saturday, local time, showing dozens of people surrounding a partially collapsed and scorched building.
Within hours, an Iranian state-sponsored media agency released photographs that showed groups of people sifting through rubble and locating the bodies of some children.
The Israeli military said it was unaware of any strike launched by its forces or the US on a school. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it was "looking into" the reports of civilian harm.
Iran has placed the blame for the deaths squarely at the feet of the US and Israeli armed forces, although the exact origin of the strike remains unclear.
The death toll released by Iranian authorities has not been independently verified by the ABC.
So, what is known about the strike and how it unfolded?
What the Iran girls' school strike video shows
Iranian authorities said the country's enemies, the US and Israel, conducted strikes on the school in the southern town of Minab on Saturday, local time.
After a weeks-long build-up of US military assets in the Middle East, Israeli and US forces launched the two countries' latest offensive against Iran on Saturday.
Footage posted to social media and verified by the ABC showed an area that appeared to be a car park next to the school heavily cluttered by dust and debris.
In the vision, the building has a partially collapsed roof, missing walls and black smoke rising from multiple scorched, upper-floor windows.
The building also appeared to have colourful painted murals of flowers and children on its exterior.
Dozens of distressed bystanders were filmed walking through the car park, standing alongside the building's facade or gathered around a large tree.
Another group of people was also shown standing to the side of the building on what appeared to be a mound of rubble where one of the school's walls had collapsed.
In other unverified videos posted online, groups of men were seen working together to lift large pieces of rubble.
Some people were filmed sifting through school bags, books and personal belongings that had been pulled out of the debris.
Iranian state television identified the site as the Shajare Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab.
[MAP]The Hengaw human rights organisation said in a statement on Sunday the school was believed to have enrolled about 170 students and was located near a navy base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's militant security organisation.
"The establishment and expansion of military facilities in close proximity to schools and public spaces place civilians at heightened risk," the statement said.
"Under international humanitarian law, the use of civilian areas to shield military objectives is prohibited."
Shiva Amelirad, a representative of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations, told TIME magazine the school was closed shortly after the first reports of US and Israeli air strikes on Iran.
"The time between the announcement of the school's closure and the moment of the explosion was very short," she said.
"Many families had not yet arrived to pick up their children."
The local prosecutor of Minab, in Iran's Hormozgan province, was quoted on Sunday, local time, as saying 96 other people had been injured in the strike, AFP reported.
A local official then said the casualties included students, parents and school staff.
The Iranian Red Crescent gave a death toll from the strike as 108, after it had steadily climbed from an initial estimate of five provided by the provincial official.
The region's governor and state-run IRNA news agency later said the toll had risen to at least 165, according to The Associated Press.
The news agency also reported an end to searches for victims.
What the reaction has been
On Saturday, local time, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted a screenshot on X of the video showing the strike site.
"The destroyed building is a primary school for girls in the south of Iran. It was bombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils," he said in the post.
"Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone. These crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered."
Israel's military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters the country was unaware of any specific strike that targeted the school, AFP reported.
"At this point not aware of an Israeli or an American strike there … we're operating in an extremely accurate manner," he said.
There has been no confirmation that the Minab school strike may have been launched by Iranian authorities.
There are no images or video that show missile parts or debris that could suggest which country launched the strike.
A spokesperson for CENTCOM, the US's central military command department, told The New York Times that the US military was investigating the strike.
"We are aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations. We take these reports seriously and are looking into them," the spokesperson said.
"The protection of civilians is of utmost importance, and we will continue to take all precautions available to minimise the risk of unintended harm."
The claims of civilian and child deaths from the strike has since drawn the condemnation of the United Nations's heritage, education and science agency UNESCO.
"The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law," it said in a statement posted on X on Monday.
"Attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education.
"In accordance with its mandate and with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2601 (2021), UNESCO recalls the obligations of all parties to protect schools, students and education personnel."
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani woman who was shot by the Taliban as a schoolgirl in 2012 and went on to become the youngest-ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, described the strike as "unconscionable".
"They were girls who went to school to learn, with hopes and dreams for their future. Today, their lives were brutally cut short," she said in statement on X.
"I am heartbroken and appalled by the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, including reports that a girls' school in southern Iran was hit, resulting in the injury and death of many girls.
"My heart is with the children, families and communities affected by escalation across the region.
"I stand firmly against violence and the targeting of schools and civilians. I call for the escalation of violence across the region to end. Justice and accountability must follow."
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