'Bodies piled up': Iran protesters describe violent crackdown
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported on Saturday that at least 78 protesters had been killed in the past two weeks.
Protesters in Iran have recounted scenes of unprecedented crowds and severe violence during recent demonstrations in Tehran, with one woman saying she saw "bodies piled up on each other" in a hospital following a harsh security crackdown.
Speaking anonymously to CNN for safety reasons, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s said people of all ages filled the streets of the capital on Thursday and Friday (9 January).
On Friday night, however, security forces carrying military weapons opened fire, killing numerous demonstrators, they alleged.
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The protests began on 28 December with demonstrations in Tehran's bazaars over soaring inflation and have since spread to more than 100 cities, marking one of the most serious challenges to Iran's ruling establishment in years.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States supports Iran's people, after President Donald Trump reiterated his threat on Friday to attack the Middle East country if its security forces kill protesters.
Amid an ongoing internet shutdown, protesters in a neighbourhood in Tehran described helping an injured man in his 60s who had suffered extensive pellet wounds to his legs and a broken arm.
Having tried to get the man treated at several different hospitals, they said hospitals are in chaos.
Several demonstrators told CNN that the scale of the protests is unlike anything they have seen before, describing the early atmosphere as hopeful.
That mood shifted sharply after a televised address by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday night, after which security forces intensified their response, they said.
Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni acknowledged "some shortcomings" but told state television that the government will deliver a better economic future.
A social worker who joined a protest in Tehran said the situation quickly turned into what she described as a nightmare as authorities fired bullets, tear gas and other weapons at crowds.
She said she saw a young woman shocked with an electric device until she lost consciousness, adding that her colleague's son was among those killed.
Medical workers and witnesses also described disturbing scenes to pro-reform outlet IranWire.
In the city of Shiraz, hospital staff treated a woman who had been shot in the head, while a doctor in Neyshabur said security forces fired on protesters from rooftops on Friday, injuring passersby, including a family and a nurse returning home.
In Najafabad, a medical staff member said families rushed to hospitals to retrieve the bodies of children and buried them without customary funeral rites.
Mohammad Lesanpezeshki, a US-based doctor educated in Tehran and with contacts in Iranian hospitals, said emergency departments are overwhelmed, with many having suffered gunshot and pellet injuries.
Quoting his friend, he added that Tehran's Farabi Eye Hospital has seen a huge surge in patients with pellets lodged in their eyes, with roughly 200 to 300 patients.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Saturday that at least 78 protesters had been killed in the past two weeks, bringing the total death toll linked to the demonstrations to at least 116, including security personnel.
At least seven of those killed were under 18, the group said, adding that more than 2,600 people have been arrested nationwide.
