GORGAN, Golestan Province -- Five people, found guilty on charges of kidnapping and raping women in this northern city, were executed publicly on Thursday, the Head of a Public Court in the city Aliakbar Maqso'dnia said Friday.

They were members of a gang who had created an atmosphere of fear in the Nahar-Khoran region, so that the victims did not dare to complain about the abuses, he said.

Nahar-Khoran is a vast land of forests near Gorgan, where thousands of Iranians visit daily on their recreational tours.