An Iranian man condemned to death by stoning was acquitted after he managed to free himself as the sentence was being carried out.

The man, Khosrow Ebrahimi from the town of Lahijan in northern Iran, was convicted of adultery last week.

Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is punishable by stoning to death, but the condemned person is acquitted if he or she manages to survive the hail of stones.

Mr Ebrahimi was buried to his waist in sand and covered with a white sheet. Local people started throwing specially selected stones at him.

The law says stones used should not be so large that a person dies in a single blow, nor so small as to be ineffectual.

But the convicted man was lucky. He survived the hail of stones and used the strength of his body to extricate himself from the ground.

The prosecuting judge said later that the man was acquitted in accordance with the law because he managed to free himself as the sentence was being carried out.

Others less fortunate

But other convicted adulterers in Iran have been less fortunate.

Iranian newspapers have reported that during the past year at least four women and three men have been stoned to death.

Opposition sources say that the true numbers of stonings are much higher and they are not reported because of possible bad publicity.

A government spokesman has recently suggested that in order to forestall international media coverage, stoning should be carried out in private.

But international human rights organisations have repeatedly condemned the practice as barbaric and urged Iran to stop it entirely.