TEHERAN (AFP) - Police in Iran said they have arrested three people accused of trying to sell babies on Instagram, semi-official news agency Isna reported on Wednesday (June 24).

"Three people who were seeking to sell two babies have been arrested," Teheran's police chief Hossein Rahimi was quoted as saying.

One of the babies was 20 days old and the other was two months, Mr Rahimi said.

Police had been alerted about "ads on Instagram for selling babies", he added.

They discovered 10 to 15 accounts involved in the scheme on the photo-sharing social media platform, and their administrators were arrested.

Each baby had been bought for between 50 and 100 million rials (S$1,650 and S$3,300) before being offered for resale for 400 to 500 million rials, Mr Rahimi said.

The three people arrested had no prior records, he said, and the infants have since been handed over to social services.

One of the three arrested was only identified by the initials M.A.

According to Isna, the suspect had allegedly said he acted as a middleman because he was unemployed and needed the money.