Iranian authorities have said they are considering “gradually” restoring internet access after imposing a communications shutdown 10 days ago, as nationwide protests in the country began to subside following a crackdown by security forces.

Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years.

Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots” and blamed foreign influence, namely from Iran’s foes, the United States and Israel.

The rallies subsided after the crackdown carried out by security forces amid a communications blackout that started on January 8 as the protests grew in size and intensity.

Government officials have said calm has been restored, with schools reopening on Sunday — Iran’s weekend falling on Thursday and Friday — after a week of closure.

Late Saturday, the Tasnim news agency reported “the relevant authorities announced that internet access would also be gradually restored”, but gave no further details.

Citing an unnamed “informed source”, the agency said local messaging applications “will soon be activated” on Iran’s domestic intranet.

On Sunday morning, AFP was able to connect to the internet from its Tehran office, though the vast majority of internet providers and mobile internet remain cut.

Outgoing international calls have been possible since Tuesday, and text messaging was restored on Saturday morning.

For days, text messages and international phone calls — and at times even local calls — were cut off.

Iran has since been relying on its intranet, which has supported local media websites, ride-hailing apps, delivery service and banking platforms.

Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) alleges it has verified the deaths of 3,428 protesters killed by security forces. However, the media cannot independently confirm the figure, and Iranian officials have not given an exact death toll for the protests.

On Saturday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “a few thousand” people had been killed by what he called “agents” of the United States and Israel, and Iranian local media has reported multiple deaths among security forces.

Khamenei said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists”, as local media has reported thousands of arrests and rights groups have estimated up to 20,000 people have been detained.