Iranian exiles staged a second day of protests on Thursday against a roundup of their left-wing opposition leaders, while French police led small groups away to prevent any more self-immolations.

Almost 100 exiled followers of Maryam Rajavi, detained head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) that wants to overthrow Tehran's religious rulers, gathered at the Eiffel Tower chanting "Free Mrs Rajavi".

Three protesters set themselves alight during a Paris protest against the raid, which rounded up 159 NCRI sympathizers at NCRI houses around the capital on Tuesday. The two women and one man were treated for serious burns.

Supporters of the NCRI also gathered outside the French Embassy in London demanding freedom for the woman they say should be Iran's next president.

A woman also set herself ablaze in London and Swiss police stopped a man trying to do the same in Berne.

The NCRI said Rajavi, whose husband Massoud is the leading figure in the Iraq-based Mujahideen whose military camps have been taken over by US forces there, had sent a message via her brother calling for an end to the self-immolation protests.

The Eiffel Tower protest broke up peacefully but exiles vowed to continue demonstrating elsewhere.

Pierre de Bousquet de Floria, the head of France's DST counter-intelligence agency, said the Mujahideen may have been planning attacks on Iranian embass-ies in Europe – the NCRI denied this - and was turning its base north of Paris into an operations center.

"We know that they intended to commit attacks outside Iran, including in Europe, against Iranian interests and diplomatic representations," he said.

The NCRI said protesters would stay outside the DST headquarters, located near the Eiffel Tower, until the release of Rajavi, who is being held there.

The DST's Tuesday raid rounded up 159 exiles. By Wednesday morning, police had released all but 26 of those detained. Reuters