Medics describe overwhelmed hospitals as demonstrations enter second week

[ad_1] Helen Sullivan, BBC Information and

Soroush Pakzad & Roja Asadi, BBC Information Persian

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/c8bd/live/9d536610-edfe-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Reuters A screen grab of a video shows protesters standing near burning vehicles in the dark in Tehran, Iran." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Reuters Burning automobiles had been pictured in Tehran on Friday night time

As protests in Iran proceed and Iranian authorities issued coordinated warnings to protesters, a health care provider and medic at two hospitals instructed the BBC their services had been overwhelmed with accidents.

One physician stated a Tehran eye hospital had gone into disaster mode, whereas the BBC additionally obtained a message from a medic in one other hospital saying it didn't have sufficient surgeons to deal with the inflow of sufferers.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump stated Iran was in "massive bother" and warned "you higher not begin capturing as a result of we'll begin capturing too".

Iran in a letter to the UN Safety Council blamed the US for turning the protests into what it known as "violent subversive acts and widespread vandalism".

Watch: Protesters take to the streets of Tehran on Friday night time

In the meantime, worldwide leaders known as for the fitting to peaceable protest to be protected.

Anti-government protests have taken place in dozens of cities, with two human rights teams reporting at the very least 50 protesters have been killed.

The BBC and most different worldwide information organisations are barred from reporting inside Iran, and the nation has been below a near-total web blackout since Thursday night, making acquiring and verifying info tough.

A physician from Iran, who contacted the BBC through Starlink satellite tv for pc web on Friday night time, stated Farabi Hospital, Tehran's principal eye specialist centre, had gone into disaster mode, with emergency providers overwhelmed.

Non-urgent admissions and surgical procedures had been stated to have been suspended, and employees known as in to take care of emergency instances.

The BBC additionally obtained a video and audio message from a medic in a hospital within the south-west metropolis of Shiraz on Thursday. The medic stated massive numbers of injured individuals had been being introduced in, and the hospital didn't have sufficient surgeons to deal with the inflow. He claimed lots of the wounded had gunshot accidents to the pinnacle and eyes.

Watch: Why are there big protests happening in Iran?

Since protests started on 28 December, at the very least 50 protesters and 15 safety personnel have been killed, in accordance with the US-based Human Rights Activist Information Company (HRANA). Greater than 2,311 people have additionally been arrested, the group reported.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) stated at the very least 51 protesters, together with 9 youngsters, had been killed.

BBC Persian has spoken to the households of twenty-two of them and confirmed their identities.

United Nations Secretary Common spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated the UN was very disturbed by the lack of life.

"Folks wherever on this planet have a proper to display peacefully, and governments have a accountability to guard that proper and to make sure that that proper is revered," he stated.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz launched a joint assertion that stated: "The Iranian authorities have the accountability to guard their very own inhabitants and should permit for the liberty of expression and peaceable meeting with out concern of reprisal."

Iran's Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained defiant in a televised deal with on Friday, saying: "The Islamic Republic got here to energy by the blood of a number of hundred thousand honourable individuals and it'll not again down within the face of those that deny this."

Later, in remarks made to a gathering of supporters and broadcast on state tv, Khamenei reiterated the message, saying Iran "is not going to shirk from coping with damaging parts".

In contrast, the son of Iran's final shah, Reza Pahlavi, described the protests on Friday as "magnificent" and urged Iranians to stage additional focused protests over the weekend.

"Our purpose is now not simply to take to the streets. The purpose is to organize to grab and maintain metropolis centres," Pahlavi, who relies within the US, stated in a video message on social media.

Pahlavi, some of the well-known opposition figures, stated he was making ready to return to the nation.

Former British ambassador to Iran, Sir Simon Gass, instructed BBC Radio 4's At the moment programme "we actually should not get too forward of ourselves" when discussing regime change.

He stated the dearth of organised opposition inside Iran signifies that individuals shouldn't have anybody to coalesce round who presents a substitute for the regime because it stands.

He added, nonetheless, that these protests are completely different to earlier ones seen within the nation, that are bringing in "a a lot wider motion of protesters than we have tended to see previously", triggered by atypical individuals discovering it "virtually unattainable to make ends meet due to the catastrophe to the financial system".

On the White Home on Friday, Trump stated his administration was watching the state of affairs in Iran fastidiously.

"It appears to me that the persons are taking up sure cities that no one thought had been actually attainable just some weeks in the past," he stated.

He echoed earlier warnings to Iran's management, saying: "We will likely be hitting them very arduous the place it hurts." He added that any US involvement didn't imply "boots on the bottom".

On Thursday, Trump stated he would "hit them very arduous" in the event that they "begin killing individuals".

Afterward Friday, the US stated Iran's international minister was "delusional" after he accused Israel and Washington of fuelling the protests.

"This assertion displays a delusional try to deflect from the huge challenges the Iranian regime faces at house," a US State Division spokesperson stated in response to the feedback by Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi throughout a go to to Lebanon.

Early on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X: "The USA helps the courageous individuals of Iran."

In the meantime, the Iranian safety and judicial authorities issued a collection of coordinated warnings to protesters on Friday, hardening their rhetoric and echoing an earlier message of "no leniency" by Iran's prime safety physique, the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council (SNSC).

Iran's Nationwide Safety Council stated "decisive and vital authorized motion will likely be taken" towards protesters, which it described as "armed vandals" and "disruptors of peace and safety".

The intelligence arm of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) stated it could not tolerate what it described as "terrorist acts", asserting that it could proceed its operations "till the whole defeat of the enemy's plan".