Iranian medics describe hospitals overwhelmed by dead and injured protesters

Staff at three hospitals in Iran told the BBC that facilities were filling up with dead and injured patients as large-scale anti-government protests continued.

A medical staff member at a hospital in Tehran said “shots were fired directly into the heads and hearts of young people,” and an eye hospital in the capital said it was in crisis mode.

Two of the medics who spoke to the BBC said they treated gunshot wounds from live ammunition and bullets.

On Friday, the United States reiterated that killings of protesters would face a military response. Iran accused the United States of turning peaceful protests into “acts of violent subversion and widespread vandalism.”

In response to the latest developments, President Trump wrote on social media, “Iran is looking at freedom perhaps like never before. America stands ready to help!!!”

WARNING: This article contains graphic descriptions of death and injury.

The protests began in the capital Tehran two weeks ago due to economic difficulties.

They have since spread to more than 100 cities and towns across Iran. Hundreds of protesters have been killed and injured, and many more are believed to have been detained. BBC Persian has identified 26 people, including six children.

Security forces were also killed, and a human rights group put the death toll at 14.

BBC Persia confirmed on Friday night that 70 bodies were taken to the Pursina Hospital in Rasht city. The morgue there was full, so the bodies were removed. Authorities demanded 7 billion rials (5,222 pounds, $7,000) from relatives of the dead to free them for burial, a hospital official said.

Most international media outlets, including the BBC, have been banned from reporting inside Iran, and the internet in Iran has been virtually blocked since Thursday evening, making it difficult to obtain and verify information.

A hospital worker in Tehran described a “very horrific scene”, saying there were so many injured that staff did not have time to perform CPR.

“About 38 people died, many as soon as they arrived in the emergency room… young people were shot directly in the head and heart. Many of them never even made it to the hospital.

“The numbers were so high that the bodies were piled on top of each other due to lack of space in the morgue.

“When the morgue was full, they piled them up in the prayer room,” she said.

Hospital staff said the dead and injured were young people.

“You couldn’t see many of them. They were 20 to 25 years old.”

A doctor who contacted the BBC via Starlink satellite link on Friday night said Farabi Hospital, Tehran’s main specialist eye center, had gone into crisis mode as emergency services were overwhelmed.

Non-urgent hospitalizations and surgeries have been halted and staff have been called in to deal with emergencies, he said.

Iranian security forces frequently use shotguns that fire cartridges filled with bullets during confrontations with protesters.

Another doctor in the central Iranian city of Kashan told the BBC that many of the injured protesters had suffered eye injuries and that his colleagues in hospitals across the city had received many injuries during Friday night’s unrest.

A similar record was recorded on Thursday night.

A doctor at a medical center in Tehran told the BBC: “The number of injuries and deaths was very high. I saw one person get shot in the eye and a bullet coming out of the back of his head.”

“Around midnight, the center closed. A group of people broke down the door, threw the shot man inside and left. But it was too late. He died before he reached the hospital and could not be saved.”

The BBC also obtained video and audio messages from a medical staff member at a hospital in the southwestern city of Shiraz on Thursday, who said many injured people were being evacuated and that the hospital did not have enough surgeons to cope with the influx of patients.

Footage released in Iran shows protesters in Tehran taking to the streets in droves on Friday night, burning cars and setting government buildings on fire in Karaj, near the capital.

Iranian forces later said they would join security forces to protect public property.

This follows reports that Iran’s security forces have been stretched thin as unrest spreads across the country.

Iranian authorities issued a series of coordinated warnings to protesters on Friday, and the National Security Council said “firm” legal action would be taken against “armed saboteurs.”

Iranian police said there were no deaths in Tehran on Friday night, but that 26 buildings had caught fire and caused extensive damage.

An eyewitness to the protests in Tehran on Thursday and Friday night told BBC Persian TV that Iran’s Generation Z had played a key role in encouraging parents and older people to come out and join the protest marches, urging them not to be afraid.

European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday that Europe supports mass protests in Iran and condemns the “violent repression” of protesters.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday the international body was deeply disturbed by the loss of life.

“People everywhere in the world have the right to protest peacefully, and governments have a responsibility to protect and ensure that that right is respected,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Kir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a joint statement Friday urging Iranian authorities to “allow freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisal.”

“The Islamic Republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honorable people and will not back down in the face of those who deny it,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised address Friday.

In remarks later broadcast on state television, Khamenei reiterated that his regime would not shy away from dealing with subversive elements “trying to please the American president.”

Meanwhile, the son of Iran’s last Shah, deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution, described the protests as “grand” and urged Iranians to continue through the weekend.

“Our goal is no longer to take to the streets. The goal is to occupy the city center and be ready to defend it,” Reza Pahlavi said in a social media video.

Pahlavi, who is in the United States, also said he was preparing to return home.

But former British ambassador to Iran Simon Garth told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that “we must not get too far ahead of ourselves” when discussing regime change.

He said the lack of an organized opposition within Iran meant there was no alternative for people to unite together while the situation lasted.

But he noted that the protests were a “much broader movement” than previous outbursts, sparked by Iranians finding it “almost impossible to make a living because of the catastrophe to the economy.”

On Friday, President Trump threatened Iran’s leadership that “if they start killing people, the United States will hit them very hard.”

He clarified that this did not mean “boots on the ground.” The United States conducted airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year.

Meanwhile, the US State Department said Iran’s foreign minister’s accusation that the US and Israel were encouraging the protests was a ‘delusional attempt’ to divert attention from challenges facing the regime.

Iranian political activist Taghi Rahmani, who spent 14 years in prison, and his wife, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, were arrested again in December and said lasting change must come from Iranians, not foreign intervention.

The protests are the most widespread since the 2022 uprising sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police for not wearing the hijab properly. According to human rights groups, more than 550 people have been killed and more than 20,000 have been detained.

Additional reporting by Soroush Negahdari, Mallory Moench and Aleks Phillips