Eyewitness testimonies describe unprecedented violence during nationwide protests on January 9-10, with reports of war-grade ammunition and heavy machine gun fire. In Bushehr alone, at least 30 citizens were killed by direct gunfire over the two nights of protests, according to medical sources. Among them were Mansoureh Heydari, a nurse at Bushehr's Social Security Hospital and mother of two children aged 7 and 10, and her husband Behrouz Mansouri.
A physician who worked across multiple hospitals in Tehran and Isfahan during two nights of protests has provided a chilling firsthand account of the brutal government crackdown, describing scenes of carnage that surpassed even the devastation witnessed during Iran's major earthquake disasters.
According to an exclusive report by Iran Wire, the doctor—whose identity is being protected for safety reasons—recounted: "I have been a physician in various hospitals since the 2009 [Green Movement] protests. I have never seen this level of catastrophe—not even during the Bam or Kermanshah earthquakes. There was the sound of gunfire, automatic weapons, even DShK [heavy machine guns]. We had only seen such things in movies, not in real life."
The testimony covers the nights of Thursday, January 9, and Friday, January 10, 2025 (18-19 Dey 1404 in the Persian calendar), when Iranians took to the streets in nationwide protests against deteriorating economic conditions and government repression. At the time of Iran Wire's report, the internet blackout had persisted for more than four days, with witnesses saying the scale of the crackdown is so vast that the full truth may never be known.
Thursday Night in Tehran: "Every Operating Room Was Full"
The physician described receiving calls from 6 PM onwards about victims with shotgun pellet and bullet wounds. When the internet was cut at 8 PM, he was summoned to the hospital.
"I entered the emergency department—it was packed," he recalled. "I had to triage: this one who was shot won't make it to the operating room, don't waste time; this one where the bullet exited the body, prepare them for surgery, maybe we can save them; this next one can hold on for three or four hours, schedule them for then... There were so many."
The doctor performed surgeries through the night across five active operating rooms, losing count of the procedures. "I would be over one patient when someone would call from another direction—'come here, help!'"
Most disturbingly, the nature of injuries changed around midnight. "From midnight Thursday, the type of wounds changed. It was war-grade ammunition. It was as if they had been ordered: this is war, shoot everyone. From 2 AM Friday, only live ammunition wounds."
Friday Night in Isfahan: "The Sound of Heavy Machine Guns"
After flying to Isfahan on Friday—where airport computer systems were down and tickets were checked manually—the doctor witnessed an escalation in violence.
"Friday was different. Friday night I was in Isfahan. I recognize the sound of gunfire. It was as if the IRGC had told the police: you don't know how to do this, tonight we'll handle it. Friday night I heard automatic fire—not Kalashnikov bursts. I heard DShK heavy machine gun fire in Isfahan."
When phone lines briefly worked at 9 PM, a surgeon colleague called requesting assistance with two simultaneous gunshot victims. An hour later, an orthopedic surgeon reported that seven patients had arrived simultaneously—six had already died.
"I called 110 [emergency services] to ask them to take me to the hospital—someone was dying—but it was busy. 115 was busy. 116 was busy. No emergency line was available. It ate me alive that maybe I could have saved that one person."
By morning, the doctor walked outside to find dried blood on the streets: "A liter of blood had been spilled. The trail of blood came right up to our house. I knew for certain [that person] had been killed."
The streets were littered with bullet casings as municipal workers cleaned up evidence of the unprecedented crackdown.
"The Shots Were Not Meant to Deter"
According to colleagues at another Isfahan hospital, at least nine protesters were brought in Friday night with close-range head wounds so severe their faces were unrecognizable.
"The shooting wasn't like earlier days of protests—not like Monday or Tuesday. These were war bullets. The shots were no longer meant to deter," the doctor stated.
The physician estimated that while casualties ranged from children to 70-year-olds, most of those killed and wounded were between 18 and 28 years old. At Isfahan's Feiz Hospital, a specialized eye hospital, at least 400 people had suffered eye injuries before the internet blackout.
A 28-year-old hospital staff member was among those killed, devastating morale among exhausted medical personnel who were dealing with patient loads "30 times normal capacity."
Security Forces Monitor Hospitals
While private hospitals saw no security presence, government hospitals received security notices demanding that information about injured protesters be reported to insurance organizations—apparently a mechanism for security services to identify and track wounded demonstrators.
In response, hospital staff quietly advised patients to provide false names and withhold their national ID numbers.
When asked which image haunts him most, the doctor responded: "The blood on the streets. Blood that remained on the sidewalk from 8 PM the night before... in our neighborhood, which is in the upper part of the city... Multiply this by a thousand across Isfahan... or even a hundred thousand across Iran."
"The number of dead cannot be given as a single figure. I doubt the true scale of this crackdown and deaths will ever be known."
Identified Victims Include Student Athlete, Nurse and Her Husband
Iran Wire has confirmed multiple deaths across the country, including:
Ahmad Khosravani, 21, a basketball player and student at the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, was shot dead by security forces on Thursday, January 9. Khosravani was a member of the Farzan Shemiran 3-on-3 basketball team and had won the Tehran basketball championship and been named "Best Player" in the Tehran adult league in 2024. His father is reportedly an Iran-Iraq war veteran.
In Bushehr province, at least 30 citizens were killed by direct gunfire over the two nights of protests, according to medical sources. Among them were Mansoureh Heydari, a nurse at Bushehr's Social Security Hospital and mother of two children aged 7 and 10, and her husband Behrouz Mansouri. The couple had left their children with family before joining protests.
An eyewitness told Iran Wire that shooting began from inside the "Quran Mosque"—reportedly the base of operations for Bushehr's current parliamentary representative, Jafar Pourkabgani—as peaceful protesters marched along Ashoori Street.
"Before they opened fire, everything was very orderly. The claim that protesters first burned banks and then we shot is complete nonsense. People were only chanting slogans," the witness stated.
Verification of casualties continues to be hampered by the nationwide blackout of internet and mobile phone services, which remained in effect as of publication.
Photo: Iran Wire