Hundreds of thousands of people marched in silence through central Tehran on Monday to protest Iran’s disputed presidential election in an extraordinary show of defiance that appeared to be the largest demonstration in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The march began hours after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for an inquiry into Opposition claims that the election was rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Khamenei’s call — announced every 15 minutes on Iranian state radio throughout the day — was the first sign that Iran’s top leadership might be rethinking its position on the election. Khamenei had said on Saturday that the election results showing a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad were fair.

As evening fell, reports of gunfire began to emerge, but for most part, the silent march was a deliberate and striking contrast with the chaos of the past few days. Associated Press reported that gunmen fired at agitators at the march, killing at least one person. An Associated Press photographer saw one person shot dead and several others who appear seriously wounded in Tehran’s Azadi Square. The shooting came from a compound for volunteer militia linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

A broad river of people — young and old, dressed in traditional Islamic gowns and the latest Western fashions — marched slowly from Revolution Square to Freedom Square for more than three hours, many of them wearing the signature bright green ribbons of Moussavi’s campaign, and holding up their hands in victory signs. When the occasional shout or chant went up, the crowd quickly hushed them, and some held up signs bearing the word “silence”.

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