IRAN ‘Everything was covered in blood’: more than 30,000 dead in two days in Iran, according to internal sources
HORROR An extremely violent crackdown on protests in Iran on 8 and 9 January 2026 reportedly caused between 30,000 and 36,500 deaths, according to internal sources and confidential documents, far exceeding the official death toll of 3,117. These figures remain difficult to verify independently, and NGOs are putting forward more cautious estimates while investigating thousands of additional deaths.
Faced with the scale of the casualties, the authorities reportedly struggled to manage the bodies, using lorries to transport them and imposing an internet blackout lasting more than two weeks, which made it difficult to access information. An underground network of doctors, communicating via Starlink, reportedly attempted to record the dead and injured despite the censorship.
Hospitals were reportedly overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of injured people, many with serious injuries (gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, eye injuries), and faced shortages of blood and specialists. Eyewitness accounts also accuse the security forces of intervening in hospitals, taking away injured patients and exerting pressure, showing that the repression may have extended beyond the demonstrations themselves.
