TEHRAN: Iran police clashed with mourners at a memorial service in Isfahan Wednesday for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, arresting more than 50 and beating women and children, reports said.

Hundreds of police and security force members early morning surrounded the Seyed mosque in Isfahan where the service was to be held and prevented mourners from entering, sparking fierce clashes, opposition websites said.

The mourners were shouting slogans in support of Iran's opposition Green Movement and police fired tear gas to disperse them, a reformist website said.

'Security forces are beating people including women and children with batons, chains and stones,' it said, adding that 'so far several have been arrested and many were injured.'

The website of Iran's reformist minority faction in parliament, said that 'over 50 people, including four reporters, were arrested in clashes.'

The latest crackdown on the opposition comes a day after its main leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was sacked from his post as president of the Academy of Art, which the architect and painter had headed for 10 years.

Iranian authorities vowed to show 'no tolerance' to protesters.

'We advise this particular movement to stop its actions or those who disturb order will be severely dealt with according to law,' Iran's police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam told the ISNA news agency.

An aide to leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meanwhile warned that the regime will crack down on opposition leaders in 'due time.'

'Dealing with riot leaders has it own due time and we will act powerfully at the right time,' Mojtaba Zolnoor, a cleric who is Khamenei's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted a saying by Fars news agency Wednesday.

Many hardliners have called for the arrest of Mousavi, who ran for president in June 12 elections which he lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad amid claims that the election was rigged, triggering sporadic protests ever since.

Montazeri, who died aged 87 on Saturday, had been a bold supporter of the opposition, branding the government 'illegitimate' and issuing blistering statements condemning violence by security forces against demonstrators. -AFP