Despite a near-total internet shutdown, videos continue to emerge from Iran - reportedly via Starlink - showing a burning Tehran. According to US magazine Time, the death toll has now passed 200.
Among the burning sites is the Al-Rasul Mosque in the northwest of the city. In the Saadat Abad neighborhood, protesters chant "Death to Khamenei" as surrounding buildings burn. In Narmak, residential buildings are on fire, and gunfire and people screaming can be heard in the background.
Footage of the protests is also coming from other cities, including Mashhad, Tabriz and Qom, the Associated Press reports. In many places, the regime is using live ammunition. According to the human rights group Iran Human Rights, hundreds of people have been injured, and the real death toll could be much higher than the 51 previously reported.
A doctor from Tehran told the American newspaper, "Time", on condition of anonymity, that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protesters killed, most by military weapons. If this number is confirmed, it would signal a severe blow, foreshadowed by the regime's almost total shutdown of the internet and telephony since Thursday night.
The doctor added that authorities removed the bodies from the hospital on Friday. Most of the dead were young, including several who were shot outside a police station in northern Tehran, where security forces opened fire with machine guns. Activists reported that at least 30 people were killed in the incident.
Human rights groups have reported a lower death toll, due to different reporting methods. The Human Rights Watch News Agency in Washington, which records only identified victims, reported at least 63 deaths since the protests began, including 49 civilians. /Telegraph/
