WATCH: Iranian boy tells horrific story of why a Tehran officer cut his ear

Tehran municipality officers cut off a child’s ear because they found him looking in trash for anything to sell and make a living, Iranian media outlets reports on Monday.

According to the Iranian news agency IRNA, the Tehran Municipality issued a statement calling on citizens to present any information they have about the child to find him and follow up on the case.

IRNA quoted the services assistant at the municipality as saying that so far, no complaint on the matter has been filed. The assistant added that they’re trying to locate the child and verify more details.

The incident sparked controversy in Iran after a video of the child talking to a journalist and telling him how the municipality officers in Tehran cut off his ear using a blade because they found him looking in the trash circulated on social media networks.

Child labor is common in Iran as children are exploited to collect garbage across different cities. Even regime officials acknowledge this phenomenon.

Children in Iran are also often seen working as vendors and at a poultry farms and workshops that produce bricks.

Elham Fakhari, the chairperson of the social affairs committee in Tehran’s municipal council, had said that contractors exploit children to collect garbage for cheap wages and under difficult working conditions.

In an interview with the Mehr news agency, Fakhari said contractors prefer to hire children because they do not know what their rights are, hence it is easier to exploit them.

She added that the children are hired to collect garbage and transfer it to rural areas where it is sorted and then sold by the contractors.