Protesters take part in a 12th night of protests in the streets of Tehran on January 8, 2026. © Stringer via Reuters
A Tehran resident who took part in the protests that have roiled Iran before fleeing the country has described a deadly crackdown – with security forces firing indiscriminately at protesters with machine guns and assault rifles – in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24.
Iran has been largely shut off from the outside world since the authorities cut internet access last week in an attempt to smother massive nationwide protests against the country’s theocratic regime.
Activists say at least 2,637 people have been killed in a brutal crackdown on the protest movement, which kicked off in late December with demonstrations against crippling price rises before escalating into a broader challenge to Iran’s Islamist rulers.
FRANCE 24’s Mariam Pirzadeh spoke to a Tehran resident who took part in some of the largest protests between January 8-10, when the regime dramatically stepped up its deadly riposte.
The eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity and has now sought refuge in Europe, described seeing paramilitary forces fire indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters, seemingly aiming to kill.
He also said he witnessed demonstrators call for the return of the shah, Iran’s pre-revolution monarch, and spoke of their hopes that US President Donald Trump would make good on his promise to come to the “rescue” of protesting Iranians.
Read his account below.
“I went out to protest on Thursday, January 8. There were so many people, I had never seen anything like it. There were millions of us in Tehran. I set off from a northern neighbourhood of the capital; there were people in every street, every thoroughfare. It was extraordinary.
There were mothers with strollers, lots of women, some in chadors (full-body garments that cover the head) shouting “Javid Shah!” (“Long live the shah!”), which was unimaginable for me to see. We were all shouting: “Death to the dictator, death to (Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei!”
There was obviously a lot of anger, but we were all peaceful protesters. We felt safe because there were so many of us, united. We told ourselves that they couldn’t shoot us. The security forces were there, watching us.”
‘They aimed for the head and torso’
“I later learned that the security forces had assembled outside Tehran, in Karaj (a town northwest of the capital) in particular. At the end of the march, they opened fire.
The next day, on Friday, even more of us turned out to protest. And there were a lot of them (security forces) on the other side. They began by firing tear gas and flash-balls (a handheld projectile launcher) using metal pellets.
They rode motorcycles in pairs, one driving, the other shooting indiscriminately into the crowd. They aimed for the head and torso, to hit the protesters’ eyes and lungs. Everyone ran away, trying to regroup elsewhere.
The next day, there were more gatherings, with lots of young people. They were ready to fight, with stones in their hands, but the other side had machine guns.
The security forces changed their strategy on Saturday (January 10), riding their motorcycles into smaller streets where people gathered, shooting and then moving on to the next street. I was in a shop when I saw them firing machine guns and assault rifles at a group of people. Twelve people collapsed before my eyes, in a pool of blood.
A friend of mine lost his three children, ages 17, 20 and 23. He found the bodies of his two sons first, and later that of his daughter. She had been shot three times.
The Basij (pro-regime paramilitary force) demanded 400 million tomans per bullet, the equivalent of €2,700 (to recover her body). They said they would declare that she was a Basij, to inflate casualty numbers among the regime’s forces, if he couldn’t afford to pay.”
‘We are all thirsty for revenge’
“My friend refused. His relatives raised the money to recover the bodies of his three children. Everyone refuses, there is a real spirit of mutual aid.
The dead are so numerous they arrive in dozens of tipper trucks at the morgues and cemeteries. Everyone knows someone who has lost a loved one.
There is no turning back, we want to put an end to the Islamic Republic. I feel once again the atmosphere of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 (which toppled the previous regime).
At the airport, I saw families of regime officials leaving the country. It’s impossible to quantify, but some are afraid. We’re living a revolution: We are all thirsty for revenge, we are filled with burning anger.
The only solution for Iranians I talk to, and myself, is Donald Trump: we are waiting for him, like the Messiah.”
FRANCE24/AFP
