The first calls from abroad come with reports of more than 2,000 dead, chilling scenes and hospitals like “war zones”

At first they were directed against the increase in the cost of living, but as the days went by The protests have become a movement against the regime theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The communications blackout indicates that it will take some time to know the true extent of the bloodshed that has occurred in Iran amid anti-government protests and the regime’s maximum repression, but Iranians who can call abroad for the first time in several days are telling their relatives. the terrible levels of death and destruction.

The town of Rasht, on the Caspian Sea coast, has been described by one resident as unrecognizable. “Everything is burned in flames”, states.

He use of live ammunition by security forces to quell protests has also been accompanied by a wave of arrests. According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a 26-year-old man arrested last Thursday has already has been sentenced to death.

The Organization reported that the family of Efran Sultani has been informed that he will be executed this Wednesday although they have not been given information about when his trial was held or what the charges are against him.

“We have never seen such a rapid process,” Awyar Shekhi of the organization told the BBC. “The government He is using every tactic he knows to suppress people and spread fear”.

The witnesses described a strong security deployment in the center of Tehrangovernment buildings burned, ATMs destroyed and few pedestrians. Meanwhile, people are still worried about the future, including the possibility of attacks after Trump said he could call on the military to defend peaceful protesters.

Reza, a taxi driver who also did not give his last name, said the protests are still on many people’s minds. “The people, especially the youngis hopeless, but they talk about continuing the protests,” he said.

Several people in Tehran They were able to call The Associated Press and talk to a journalist there. The AP office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to return calls to those numbers. Witnesses said SMS text messages they still didn’t work and that internet users in Iran could connect to local, government-approved websites, but not anything abroad.

riot police officers Equipped with helmets and armor, they carried batons, shields, shotguns and tear gas launchers. They kept watch at the main intersections. Nearby, witnesses saw members of the Basij force, made up of Revolutionary Guard volunteers, similarly carrying firearms and batons. Agents could also be seen plainclothes security in public spaces.

Death toll feared in crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran is in the thousands, according to BBC Persian correspondent Jiyar Gol and a source who spoke to the Reuters news agency.

Gol stated that it can safely state that the death toll must be thousandsadding that, although the government has used force in the past, “This time it is an unprecedented event.”

Reuters news agency has also reported that an Iranian security official said the death toll could be around 2,000. The source indicated that the estimate included both security personnel and civilians, and blamed “terrorists” for the deaths.

This comes after UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told a conference in Geneva that “reports indicate that hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have been arrested“.

This estimate comes from the UN’s own sources on the ground, Laurence said. “They are reliable sources”.

The update comes after a human rights group stated on Monday that it believed nearly 650 protesters had been killed and thousands injured. Several factors make it difficult to determine the number of deaths during the protests in Iran. The country restricts media activity international and there has been an internet blackout for the last five days.

Staff at several hospitals in Iran reported that their facilities They are overwhelmed by dead patients or injured, as major anti-government protests continue.

A doctor at a Tehran hospital said: there were “shots directly to the heads of the young peopleand also to the heart“, while another doctor indicated that an eye hospital in the capital was in a state of crisis.

Two of the healthcare professionals who spoke to the BBC said they treated gunshot wounds, both from live ammunition and pellets.

An Iranian said he saw security forces shoot directly into a row of protesters and? “People fell where they were.”

London-based Iranian oncologist Shahram Kordasti managed to communicate with colleagues in Iran.

“It has always been relatively easy to obtain information,” but it is different, the doctor warns.

This time, all communication channels have been blocked.

Kordasti told BBC Newsday that the last message he received was from a colleague in Tehran who told him: “In most hospitals, It’s like a war zone. “We have a shortage of supplies and blood.”

Although he admitted not being able to verify it, Kordasti said his medical contacts at “two or three hospitals” tell him they have treated hundreds of people injured or killed.

“The figures we received They come mainly from Tehran or big citiesbut we have no idea what is happening in the smallest cities“.

There remain limitations and difficulties in receiving information from inside Iran that can be used to verify accounts.

The calls that came this Tuesday from Iran were because some Iranians are connected through Starlink, Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite internet.

Iranians living near Tehran reported that there were “checkpoints on every block” where They inspected the cars and phones of their occupants.

They also indicated that since Monday night interference in access to Starlink had increased and it was constantly connecting and disconnecting.

With information from the Associated Press and BBC News