A candlelit vigil held in Manchester in memory of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was met with a larger counter-protest calling for the end of the Iranian regime.

Around two hundred people gathered in the city centre on Wednesday night, lighting candles beneath a photograph of the cleric and displaying messages supportive of the Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, hundreds of anti-regime demonstrators arrived nearby, voicing support for a free and democratic Iran.

Members of the counter-protest waved British flags, Israeli flags, and the historic Iranian lion-and-sun flag associated with Iran before the 1979 revolution.

Music played through loudspeakers as demonstrators chanted slogans and celebrated what they described as the end of a regime they say has oppressed the Iranian people for decades.

Some protesters burned images of the late Ayatollah during the demonstration.

The two groups remained separate as the protests unfolded in the city centre.