SOME 50 people have been arrested in Iran's clerical capital of Qom after police broke up a crowd that had assembled to watch the rumoured execution of a half-woman half-tigress, the Jomhuri-Eslami newspaper reported.

According to the report, a large crowd turned up in a square in the city to watch the hanging of the woman-beast, only to be met by police who attempted to convince them that the bizarre rumour was in fact absolutely false.