More than 2,000 demonstrators had gathered south of Baghdad, to demand provincial governor resign over poor basic services.

A teenager was killed and 27 people were injured when Iraqi private security guards opened fire on protesters who tried to storm government offices id the country’s south and set fire to them.

More than 2,000 demonstrators had gathered in the centre of Kut, capital of Wasit province south of Baghdad, to demand provincial governor Latif Hamad al-Tarfa resign over poor basic services like electricity and water.

"We have received one dead body and are treating 27 wounded," said Majid Mohammed Hassan from Kut hospital's administrative unit. Hassan said the fatality had been a 16-year-old boy who suffered a bullet to the chest.

Police said that the guards initially fired into the air in a bid to disperse the demonstrators, but when the crowds stormed the administrative building the guards were spurred to fire at protesters.
"Those were private guards, only they fired at the protesters. They were outside the law," police Brigadier General Hussein Jassim told AFP. "Our forces only fired into the air."

Major Mohammed Saleh, the top police intelligence officer in Kut, said: "Measures will be taken against the private guards but after the situation has calmed down."

The protesters then set fire to the administrative building, and proceeded to the governor's official residence nearby, which was also set alight.