Isfahan protests: witness reports live fire, Jan 2026
Content note: this piece includes descriptions of injury and gunfire. When you see headlines about Iran, it’s easy to miss the people behind the numbers. One witness, Parnia, told the BBC that her street in Isfahan felt like a “war zone” as security forces fired live ammunition. We’ll walk through what she says she saw, what has been verified, and why so much evidence is hard to find.
Iran’s government has kept the internet largely shut for three weeks, according to the BBC. That blackout blocks videos, slows verification, and muffles local voices. In moments like this, Iranians who have left the country often become the messengers, passing on calls, voice notes and details from relatives still inside.
Parnia lives in London. She was visiting family in Isfahan when protests that began in Tehran spread across the country. In the Hakim Nezami and Khaghani neighbourhoods, she says hundreds gathered-men and women, teenagers and older residents. Some chanted “Death to the dictator,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Others called “Long live the shah,” invoking Iran’s last monarch and the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. These slogans matter because they signal different strands within the opposition, from republican demands to monarchist hopes.
She describes the first wave of force as tear gas. Then lines of security officers raised shotguns and fired birdshot. People fell; blood marked the tarmac. She ran through alleyways until a stranger pulled her into a block of flats. Inside, she found injured protesters-among them a young woman with a leg pitted by pellets-while residents tried to stem bleeding with limited supplies.
Videos the BBC says it has verified from that night show large crowds in Isfahan. Protesters used traffic sign poles and sheets of metal as makeshift shields. Footage also shows people breaking the gates of the state broadcaster IRIB; the building was later set on fire. Verified visuals like these help us place parts of her account in time and space.
On Friday 9 January 2026, Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would not back down against what he called “destructive elements”. A day earlier, US President Donald Trump warned he would hit Iran “very hard” if authorities started killing people. After Khamenei’s remarks, the Revolutionary Guards sent mass text messages telling people to avoid street gatherings and warning that co-operating with so‑called “terrorist mercenaries” would be treason. For context: the Guards answer to the Supreme Leader and run powerful security, economic and media networks alongside the regular army.
Parnia went out again that evening. She describes a mix of hope and dread. In her area, protesters clustered in alleyways rather than on main roads. Each attempt to move into the open, she says, was met by the sound of live fire and the screams that followed. Because many left phones at home and the internet was cut, the BBC says it could not obtain footage from that night-one reason why documentation is fragmentary.
She recalls “total chaos” at a local clinic. Phone lines failed, families could not be reached, and some wounded people refused hospital care for fear of arrest in facilities monitored by security forces. Nurses cleaned wounds and sent people home. By morning, the air still stung with tear gas and checkpoints had appeared across the city.
She left Isfahan for Tehran to catch a flight back to London. In the capital, shops were shuttered and crowds gathered. Around 8pm, chants rose and gunshots echoed, she says. The airport was jammed after several foreign airlines cancelled services. She eventually found a seat on an Iranian flight out.
Back in the UK, Parnia heard from contacts that doctors at Feiz Eye Hospital in Isfahan had carried out around 300 surgeries to remove birdshot pellets from patients’ eyes. Friends told her that on ordinary streets you now notice many people with eye patches. Health workers who spoke to the BBC say hospitals are closely monitored and people with gunshot wounds risk arrest, so some surgeons refer patients to private clinics to reduce that risk and the chance of infection.
Counting deaths and injuries is difficult during a blackout. Iranian authorities have said around 3,000 people were killed during the protests. The US‑based rights group HRANA says it has confirmed more than 4,600 deaths so far, with another 9,700 cases under review, and at least 7,300 serious injuries. When communications are cut, families stay silent for safety and cases outside major cities are missed, so figures often diverge.
If you’re studying this in class, read claims slowly. Check the date on any clip, look for who verified it-here, the BBC says it verified some videos-and remember that eyewitnesses report what they saw from one place at one time. Building a reliable picture means comparing multiple sources and noting what we still don’t know.
Parnia says she plans to join protests in the UK to speak up for those who cannot. Her message is that Iranians have shown what they want in the streets and paid a high price. Our role, as readers and learners far away, is to keep paying attention, test information carefully, and hold space for the people living it.