‘Doc was shot in the face’

EYEWITNESS: ‘NO HOSPITAL FOR PROTESTERS AS TROOPS CHECK FOR WOUNDS’

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Young protesters shot in the back, shotgun pellets fired in a doctor's face, wounded people afraid to go to hospital: “Every family has been affected” by the deadly crackdown on Iran’s recent wave of demonstrations, said one protester.

Speaking in Istanbul, this 45-year-old engineer who asked to be identified as Farhad - not his real name - was caught up in the mass protests that swept his home city of one million people just outside Tehran.

With Iran still largely under an internet blackout after weeks of unrest, eyewitness testimony is key for understanding how the events unfolded.

Angry demonstrations over economic hardship began late last year and exploded into the biggest antigovernment protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“On the first day, there were so many people in the streets that the security forces just kept their distance,” he said.