As protests in Iran continue and Iranian authorities issued coordinated warnings to protesters, a doctor and medic at two hospitals told the BBC their facilities were overwhelmed with injuries.
One doctor said a Tehran eye
hospital had gone into crisis mode, while the BBC also obtained a message from
a medic in another hospital saying it did not have enough surgeons to cope with
the influx of patients. On Friday, US President Donald Trump said Iran was in
"big trouble" and warned "you better not start shooting because
we'll start shooting too". Iran in a letter to the UN Security Council
blamed the US for turning the protests into what it called "violent
subversive acts and widespread vandalism".
Anti-government protests, which continued on Friday, have taken place in dozens
of locations, with two human rights groups reporting at least 50 protesters
have been killed.
The BBC and most other
international news organisations are barred from reporting inside Iran, and the
country has been under a near-total internet blackout since Thursday evening,
making obtaining and verifying information difficult. A doctor from Iran, who
contacted the BBC via Starlink satellite internet on Friday night, said Farabi
Hospital, Tehran's main eye specialist centre, had gone into crisis mode, with
emergency services overwhelmed.
Non-urgent admissions and
surgeries were said to have been suspended, and staff called in to deal with
emergency cases. Since protests began on 28 December, at least 51 protesters,
including seven children, and 21 security personnel have been killed, according
to the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA). More than 2,311
individuals have also been arrested, the group reported. The Norway-based Iran
Human Rights (IHRNGO) said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, had
been killed. BBC Persian has verified the identities of 26 killed
protesters, including five children.
Iranian police maintained that
no one was killed over Friday night in Tehran, though they said 26 buildings
were set on fire, with damage to property very extensive.
United Nations Secretary
General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN was very disturbed by the
loss of life. "People anywhere in the world have a right to demonstrate
peacefully, and governments have a responsibility to protect that right and to
ensure that that right is respected," he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Sir
Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz released a joint statement
that said: "The Iranian authorities have the responsibility to protect
their own
population and must allow for the freedom of expression and
peaceful assembly without fear of reprisal." Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained
defiant in a televised address on Friday, saying: "The Islamic
Republic came to power through the blood of several hundred thousand honourable
people and it will not back down in the face of those who deny this."
Later, in remarks made to a gathering of supporters and
broadcast on state television, Khamenei reiterated the message, saying Iran
"will not shirk from dealing with destructive elements". By contrast,
the son of Iran's last shah, Reza Pahlavi, described the protests on Friday as
"magnificent" and urged Iranians to stage further targeted protests
over the weekend.
"Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets.
The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres," Pahlavi said in a
video message on social media. Pahlavi, who is based in the US, said he
was preparing to return to the country.
The BBC also obtained a video and audio message from a
medic in a hospital in the south-west city of Shiraz on Thursday. The medic
said large numbers of injured people were being brought in, and the hospital
did not have enough surgeons to cope with the influx. He claimed many of the
wounded had gunshot injuries to the head and eyes.
A health worker at another hospital in Tehran also told the
BBC that their patients included gunshot wound victims. Former British
ambassador to Iran, Sir Simon Gass, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "we
really shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves" when discussing regime
change. He said the lack of organised opposition within Iran means that people
do not have anyone to coalesce around who presents an alternative to the regime
as it stands.
He added, however, that these protests are different to
previous ones, which are bringing in "a much wider movement of protesters
than we've tended to see in the past", triggered by ordinary people
finding it "almost impossible to make ends meet because of the disaster to
the economy". At the White House on Friday, Trump said his
administration was watching the situation in Iran carefully.
"It looks to me that the people are taking over
certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks
ago," he said. He echoed earlier warnings to Iran's leadership, saying:
"We will be hitting them very hard where it hurts." He added that any
US involvement did not mean "boots on the ground".
On Thursday, Trump said he
would "hit them very hard" if they "start killing
people". Later on Friday, the US said Iran's foreign minister was
"delusional" after he accused Israel and Washington of fuelling the
protests. "This statement reflects a delusional attempt to deflect from
the massive challenges the Iranian regime faces at home," a US State
Department spokesperson said in response to the comments by Foreign Minister
Abbas Araghchi.
Early on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted
on X: "The United States supports the brave people of Iran."
Iranian political activist Taghi Rahmani, who spent 14
years in prison in Iran and whose wife, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges
Mohammadi, was re-arrested in December, told the Today programme he was dubious
of American support.
"We believe foreign intervention will make the
opposition dependent," he said. "When the opposition is dependent,
you have to sacrifice national interests for that government. This will not be
acceptable for the Iranian people." The Iranian security and judicial
authorities had issued a series of coordinated warnings to protesters on
Friday, hardening their rhetoric and echoing an earlier message of "no
leniency" by Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security
Council.
Iran's National Security Council said "decisive and
necessary legal action will be taken" against protesters, which it
described as "armed vandals".
The intelligence arm of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard
Corps (IRGC) said it would not tolerate what it described as "terrorist
acts", asserting that it would continue its operations "until the
complete defeat of the enemy's plan".
