UN rights office says hundreds killed in Iran protests

GENEVA, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday that he was "horrified" by mounting violence by Iran's security forces against peaceful protesters.

"This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue. The Iranian people and their demands for fairness, equality and justice must be heard," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement read out by U.N. rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence.

Asked to comment on the scale of the killings, Laurence, citing the United Nations' own sources in Iran, said: "The number that we're hearing is hundreds."