Four inmates were killed at a Tehran prison known for holding political prisoners and dissidents after a large fire broke out when clashes erupted between inmates and guards.
The blaze started on Saturday night as widespread anti-government protests that have gripped Iran entered their fifth week. The fire started in a wing of Evin prison, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, which said the facility houses “thieves and financial criminals.”
Some 61 prisoners were injured in the incident, including four who are in critical condition, IRNA said. Security forces were sent to the compound late on Saturday and firefighters managed to put out the flames, IRNA reported, adding that clashes between prisoners and guards led to a fire breaking out in a sewing workshop and warehouse holding prison clothes.
The fire comes as demonstrations continue to challenge Iran’s clerical political system. The protests were triggered on Sept. 16 by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes.
Videos posted on social media Sunday claimed to show footage from protests in other cities overnight, including the southern city of Yazd where security forces reportedly shot at people. Student protests also resumed at a number of universities, according social media footage, including the campus of Shahid Beheshti University in a northern Tehran district adjacent to Evin. Other student demonstrations were reported in the central city of Najafabad and the northern city of Gilan.
The videos posted and the statements made in them couldn’t be verified by Bloomberg News.
Iranian authorities have arrested hundreds of people since the unrest started a month ago, including journalists and photographers. Many of them are detained at Evin, which holds scores of political prisoners including civil and women’s rights activists, environmentalists and several dual nationals held on broad national security charges.
The British Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held there and Iranian American Siamak Namazi, the longest-serving U.S. dual-national prisoner in Iran, was returned to Evin last week following a short furlough.
Shots and fire
News organizations that are banned inside Iran published accounts from purported eyewitnesses that appear to contradict narratives published by state-run media.
Iranian state TV showed a report from inside the prison shortly after the blaze had been put out, showing a gutted warehouse as the reporter pointed to debris and fragments of cloth.
According to state TV, many prisoners were allowed to phone their families to assure them of their safety, yet several people identifying themselves as relatives of detainees held in Evin said on Twitter that they hadn’t heard anything from their loved ones and are deeply concerned for their safety.
The Prague-based, U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said it had been contacted by a political prisoner inside Evin who said prison guards shot and “brutally beat” a large number prisoners after riots started at around 8:45 p.m. local time in ward no. 7 of the prison. At least one detainee was “bleeding heavily on the floor,” RFE/RL quoted the person as saying.
Iran’s hard-line Fars news agency blamed inmates for the violence, saying they attacked prison guards in order to try and seize their weapons. State-run IRNA said the four deaths were the result of smoke inhalation.
Multiple unverified videos of the Evin incident shared on social media show a large blaze engulfing an elevated, hillside complex and a huge plume of black smoke rising into the sky. Evin prison is located in northern Tehran at the foot of a mountain range.
Gunshots and explosions can also be heard in several clips and some footage appears to show missiles or other objects being hurled into the fire.
Many videos appear to be taken by commuters stuck in gridlocked traffic on the periphery of Evin, where police reportedly closed roads to prevent any access to the site. Several videos show a car ablaze on a flyover expressway that leads west out of Evin district. People can be heard explaining that police fired tear gas cannisters at the vehicle.
In others, students purportedly from the nearby dormitories of Shahid Beheshti University are shown chanting two of the main slogans of the protests — “women, life, freedom” and “death to Khamenei,” referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that inmates from an adjacent ward were then also shot at by guards after trying to help those caught up in the initial violence. Guards allegedly beat between 40 to 50 detainees with a baton, before transferring them to another section of the complex, RFE/RL said, citing the phone call from a prisoner.
Without citing a source, Fars — which is closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — also said that the explosions heard and seen in many of the social media videos could have been the result of some inmates stepping on mines outside the prison as they tried to escape.
The semi-official Iranian Student’s News Agency, citing an informed source, later denied anyone had stepped on any land mines or entered the mined area of the prison complex. ISNA said that “calm” had been restored to the prison by Sunday morning and “the situation is completely under control.”
