Verified videos emerging from Iran show bodies piled up in a hospital, snipers stationed on buildings and CCTV cameras being destroyed, following the unprecedented crackdown on protests earlier this month.

BBC Verify has been tracking the spread of protests across Iran since they first 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 state’s deadly crackdown on protesters.

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US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has confirmed the killing of nearly 6,000 people, including 5,633 protesters, since the unrest began at the end of December. It says it is also currently investigating another 17,000 reported deaths received despite an internet shutdown after nearly three weeks.

Another group, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), has warned that the final toll could exceed 25,000.

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Multiple clips analysed by BBC Verify and BBC Persian show bodies piled up inside a mortuary at Tehranpars hospital in east Tehran. We verified the location of the hospital by matching its interior to other publicly available images and videos of the building, and counted at least 31 bodies in just one video. Another clip shows seven body bags laid on the ground outside the hospital’s entrance.

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Protesters have also been seen trying to evade Iran’s heavy surveillance infrastructure by disabling CCTV cameras. Footage we verified shows one person in the capital climbing up a post and hitting a surveillance camera several times in an attempt to disable it. A huge crowd of protesters can be seen on the ground and heard cheering as the camera is damaged.

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Snipers have also been recorded on the roofs of buildings. In the north-eastern city of Mashhad verified video shows two men dressed in black on a rooftop of a building in daylight. One man is standing next to a large rifle that is lent against a wall and speaking on the phone. The other man crouches on the floor while smoking.

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