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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Deepa Parent and William Christou

Hundreds of gunshot eye injuries found in one Iranian hospital amid brutal crackdown on protests

Protesters around a bonfire
Tens of thousands have taken part in the largest anti-government protests in Iran since 2009. Photograph: Getty Images

An ophthalmologist in Tehran has documented more than 400 eye injuries from gunshots in a single hospital, as overwhelmed medical staff struggle to cope with the toll of an increasingly violent crackdown on nationwide protests by Iranian authorities.

Three doctors, in messages forwarded to the Guardian on Monday, described overwhelmed hospitals and emergency wings overflowing with protesters who had been shot. Medical staff said the gunshot wounds were mostly concentrated on protesters’ eyes and heads – a tactic that rights groups said authorities used against demonstrators in the country’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

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