Faces of Tragedy: Graphic Evidence of Iran's Protest Crackdown

Mon Feb 02 2026 22:16:53 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Leaked images reveal the harrowing reality of the crackdown on protesters in Iran, highlighting the loss of lives amidst calls for justice and political change.

In a chilling expose by BBC Verify, hundreds of photos have surfaced depicting the faces of at least 326 individuals killed during a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran. The graphic nature of the images—the bloodied and disfigured faces of victims—compounds the tragedy of families struggling to identify their loved ones amidst the state-sponsored violence. This incident underscored the profound human cost of dissent within Iran, where officials have reportedly downplayed the severity of the protests while thousands remain unaccounted for.

Warning: this story contains graphic content which some readers might find distressing.

Hundreds of photos revealing the faces of those killed during Iran's violent crackdown on anti-government protests have been leaked to BBC Verify.

The pictures, which are too graphic to show without blurring, reveal the bloodied, swollen and bruised faces of at least 326 victims - including 18 women. The images, displayed in a south Tehran mortuary, are one of the only ways families have been able to identify their dead loved ones.

Many of the victims were too disfigured to be identified, and 69 people had been labelled in Persian as John or Jane Doe, suggesting their identity was unknown when the photo was taken. Only 28 of the victims had labels with clearly visible names in the photos.

Labels on more than 100 victims, who had their date of death recorded, showed that date as 9 January, one of the deadliest nights for protesters in Tehran so far.

The city's streets were set on fire during clashes with security forces, with protesters chanting slogans against the supreme leader and the Islamic Republic. It followed a call for nationwide protests from Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah.

The leaked photos provide a small snapshot of the thousands believed to have been killed at the hands of the Iranian state.

BBC Verify has been tracking the spread of protests across Iran since they erupted in late December, but the near total internet blackout imposed by the authorities has made it extremely difficult to document the scale of the government's violence against those who oppose it.

Despite the blackout entering its third week, a small number of people have managed to get some information out.

Hundreds of close-up images of victims taken from inside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre were leaked to BBC Verify.

One source, who we are not naming for their safety, told us they weren't prepared for the level of devastation they encountered inside the mortuary complex, and said they saw victims ranging from as young as 12 or 13 to 60 and 70-year-olds. It was just too much, they said.

BBC Verify has separately corroborated videos from the same mortuary that demonstrate the violence perpetrated against protesters. One shows the body of what appears to be a child, while another shows a man with a clear gunshot wound in the middle of his head. Both videos are too distressing to show.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has placed its current estimate at more than 4,000 deaths.