Iran horror as body bags line street after regime massacre – ‘Blood everywhere’ | World | News

A resident in Iran has shared a horrific account of the “ruthless reality” in the streets of Iran following ongoing protests. The woman, who managed to post on X, formerly Twitter, despite Internet blackouts, claimed that her colleague “saw a line of bodies in two rows on the sidewalk” in the city of Rasht and that “the smell of blood has filled the neighbourhoods”.

“Horrific massacre in Rasht. Our colleague saw a line of bodies in two rows on the sidewalk. A story about the smell of blood that has filled the neighbourhoods. The bitter and cruel reality,” @BehtarBehrokh wrote.

The tweet is likely connected to recent videos showing Iranians screaming in anguish beside bodies shrouded in black bags amid latest brutal crackdowns on dissent. The videos made their way past Tehran over the weekend, displaying horror scenes from earlier in the week.

The body bags were inside warehouse-like rooms as well as lying on the ground outside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in south of Tehran. The videos show a crowd of people gathering beside the bodies, trying to identify their loved ones.  The video shows some bodies scattered across what appears to be the facility’s courtyard. Others lie on unpaved ground. Some are just feet away from parked cars, as families frantically search for the remains of their loved ones. According to the activist group Mamlekate, the number of the bodies are so many that they are bing lined up in the courtyard.

Another video shows a crowd of people gathered in front of a monitor that displays photos of dead individuals as their loved ones crowd around, trying to identify them. A loudspeaker calls out their names and asks relatives to collect the body. According to information seen on the screen and images received by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), around 250 bodies are estimated to be at the facility.

While acknowledging the grim scenes, Iranian state media blamed the deaths on “rioters”, insisting that the bodies are of bystanders who got dragged into the protests.

Official state media outlets, including the Tasnim and Student News Agencies, released footage filmed near the local forensics center. In the broadcast, a reporter claims to have interviewed families at the medical examiner’s office to talk about their deceased relatives. The featured clips show grieving family members stating that those they lost were not involved in the demonstrations, nor did they have any interest in participating in the protests.

One man sitting on the floor beside a body in a black bag told the reporter that his loved one was hit in the head with a rock thrown by an unknown person from the top of a building. The man added his loved one was pro-government, CNN reported.

More than 500 protesters, including nine minors, have been killed, and more than 10,000 have been arrested since the protests began in late December, according to HRANA. But the rare information making its way out of Iran makes an already murky situation difficult to understand.