Iranian authorities said on Saturday that they had arrested several suspects in the murder of a student that triggered a night of protest at Tehran University.

Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, a 19-year-old business student, was killed by robbers near the university's dormitory on Wednesday, according to media reports.

The murder has sparked outrage and student protests for better security on campus.

"The perpetrators have been arrested and are being questioned," the judiciary's spokesman Asghar Jahangir told state television.

The Fars news agency reported that Khaleghi was buried in his hometown on Saturday. 

Protests on Friday attracted dozens of university students. The Ham Mihan daily said on its website that tensions escalated after plainclothes security forces intervened.

Science Minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf said that the head of Tehran University's dormitory management had resigned in the wake of the killing.

The minister also denied reports that students had been arrested following the protests.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref has ordered an "urgent and thorough investigation," the official IRNA news agency said.

The protests at Tehran University come more than two years after nationwide demonstrations swept Iran following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died three days after her arrest for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code.

Khaleghi's body was laid to rest on Saturday at his home village in South Khorasan province, in eastern Iran.