TEHRAN -- Four Iranian men convicted of belonging to an organised crime gang and another man found guilty of raping a young girl have been hanged in the northern province of Mazandaran, reports say.

The four gang members, who had been convicted of murder, adultery, bribery, embezzlement and forgery, were hanged in public in the town of Salmanshahr, the state news agency IRNA reported.

The men, part of a gang called "Wild", were branded by the court as being "corrupt on earth", provincial judiciary chief Foulad Amoli was quoted as saying.

"The police had killed three members of the gang including the head, identified as Mehid Shams, during the arrest operations," Amoli said, adding that other gang members - numbering around 100 - were sentenced to long jail terms.

In addition, the student news agency ISNA reported that another man, only identified as a "middle-aged" rapist of a 10-year-old girl, was hanged in public on Sunday in the town of Ghaemshahr.

Murder, armed robbery, rape, apostasy and serious drug trafficking are all punishable by death in Iran.

According to reports in Iran's main newspapers and other media monitored by AFP.

Editor's note - With no transparency in the Islamic Republic's judicial systems, the accuracy of convictions are under serious question.