New Iranian video shows bodies piling up in hospital, snipers on rooftops

Verified videos from Iran show bodies piling up in hospitals, snipers stationed on buildings and CCTV cameras destroyed following an unprecedented crackdown on protests earlier this month.

BBC verify has been tracking the spread of protests across Iran since they first broke out in late December, but a near-total internet blockade imposed by authorities has made it extremely difficult to document the scale of the country’s deadly crackdown on protesters.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said nearly 6,000 people, including 5,633 protesters, had been confirmed killed since the unrest began in late December. The company said it was still investigating reports of another 17,000 deaths, despite the internet being shut down nearly three weeks later.

Another group, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR), warned that the final death toll could exceed 25,000.

Iranian authorities said last week that more than 3,100 people had died, but most were security personnel or bystanders attacked by “rioters”.

The latest video from the country is understood to have been filmed on January 8 and 9, when Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah’s exiled son, called for nationwide protests and thousands of people took to the streets.

In what is considered the deadliest night for protesters yet, these newly verified videos show how Iranian security forces violently suppressed protesters.

Multiple clips analyzed by BBC Verify and BBC Persian show bodies piled up in the morgue of Tehran Pars Hospital in east Tehran. We verified the hospital’s location by matching its interior to other publicly available images and videos of the building, and counted at least 31 bodies in one video. Another video showed seven body bags on the ground outside the hospital entrance.

In another video, hundreds of people protested on a highway in western Tehran before multiple rounds of gunfire were heard and people began to scream.

Protesters were also seen trying to evade Iran’s tight surveillance infrastructure by disabling CCTV cameras. Video we verified shows a person in the capital climbing a pole and hitting a surveillance camera multiple times in an attempt to turn it off. A large group of protesters can be seen on the ground and cheers can be heard as cameras are damaged.

We tracked the spread of anti-government protests in 71 cities and towns in Iran, but the true number of areas where demonstrations took place is likely much higher.

In the southeastern city of Kerman, a video shot from high on a building showed several armed men in military uniforms walking along a road and firing continuously, but it was not clear who they were targeting. A small fire burned in the middle of the road and protesters could be heard chanting slogans in the background.

Snipers were also recorded on the roof of the building. In the northeastern city of Mashhad, verified video showed two men dressed in black standing on the roof of a building during the day. A man stands on the phone next to a large borrowed rifle against the wall. Another man squatted on the floor smoking.

For most people, the internet has been almost completely out since January 8, but some people have managed to gain brief access to the internet using methods such as SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet and virtual private networks (VPNs).

More videos are likely to emerge in the coming days as the country’s economy struggles amid the blackouts.

Additional reporting by BBC Persian.