Staff at three hospitals in Iran have told the BBC their facilities are overwhelmed with dead or injured patients, as major anti-government protests continue.

A medic at one Tehran hospital said there were “direct shots to the heads of the young people, to their hearts as well”, while a doctor said an eye hospital in the capital had gone into crisis mode.

Two of the medical workers who spoke to the BBC said they treated gunshot wounds from both live ammunition and pellets.

On Friday, the US repeated that killing protesters would be met with a military response. Iran blamed the US for turning peaceful protests into what it called “violent subversive acts and widespread vandalism”.

Reacting to the latest developments, President Trump posted on social media: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of death and injury

The protests began in the capital Tehran a fortnight ago over economic hardship.

They have since spread to more than 100 cities and towns across all of Iran’s provinces. Dozens of protesters have been killed and hundreds detained, human rights monitors say, with 21 security personnel reportedly also killed.

The BBC and most other international news organisations are barred from reporting inside Iran, and the country has been under a near-total internet blackout since Thursday evening, making obtaining and verifying information difficult.

A hospital worker in Tehran described “very horrible scenes”, saying there were so many wounded that staff did not have time to perform CPR.

“Around 38 people died. Many as soon as they reached the emergency beds… direct shots to the heads of the young people, to their hearts as well. Many of them didn’t even make it to the hospital.

“The number was so large that there wasn’t enough space in the morgue; the bodies were placed on top of one another.

“After the morgue became full, they stacked them on top of one another in the prayer room,” she said.

The hospital worker said the dead and wounded were young people.

“Couldn’t look at many of them, they were 20-25 years old.”

BBC Persian have verified that 70 bodies were also brought to Poursina Hospital in Rasht city on Friday night. The morgue there was at full capacity, so the bodies were taken away. The authorities asked the relatives of the dead for 7 billion rials (£5,222; $7,000) to release them for burial, a hospital source said.

A doctor who contacted the BBC via a Starlink satellite connection on Friday night, said Tehran’s main eye specialist centre, Farabi Hospital, had gone into crisis mode with emergency services overwhelmed.

Non-urgent admissions and surgeries were suspended and staff called in to deal with emergency cases, he said.

Iran’s security forces often use shotguns which fire cartridges filled with pellets during confrontations with protesters.

Another doctor from the city of Kashan in central Iran told the BBC many injured protesters had been hit in the eyes, and that his colleagues in hospitals across the city reported receiving many wounded people during Friday night’s unrest.

Thursday night produced similar accounts.

A doctor at a medical centre in Tehran told the BBC: “The number of injured people and fatalities was very high. I saw one person who had been shot in the eye, with the bullet exiting from the back of his head.

“Around midnight, the centre’s doors were closed. A group of people broke the door and threw a man who had been shot inside, then left. But it was too late – he had died before reaching hospital and could not be saved.”

The BBC also obtained a video and audio message from a medic at a hospital in the south-west city of Shiraz on Thursday, who said large numbers of injured were being brought in, and the hospital did not have enough surgeons to cope with the influx.

What footage is emerging from Iran shows protesters in Tehran taking to the streets en masse on Friday night, burning vehicles, and a government building set alight in Karaj, near the capital.

The Iranian army has since said it will join security forces in defending public property.

It follows reports that Iranian security forces were spread thin as the unrest extended throughout the country.

Iranian authorities issued a series of co-ordinated warnings to protesters on Friday, with the National Security Council saying “decisive” legal action would be taken against “armed vandals”.

Since the demonstrations began on 28 December, at least 51 protesters, including seven children, and 21 security personnel have been killed, according to the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency. More than 2,311 individuals have also been arrested, it says.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights reports at least 51 protesters, including nine children, have been killed.

BBC Persian has verified the identities of 26 killed protesters, including six children.

Iranian police maintained that no one was killed in Tehran on Friday night, though they said 26 buildings were set on fire, causing extensive damage.

An eyewitness who joined the protests on Thursday and Friday nights in Tehran told BBC Persian Television that Gen Z Iranians have been instrumental in encouraging their parents and older people to come out and join the protest marches, urging them not to be afraid.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday that Europe backed Iranians’ mass protests and condemned the “violent repression” against demonstrators.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday the international body was very disturbed by the loss of life.

“People anywhere in the world have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and governments have a responsibility to protect that right and to ensure that that right is respected,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz released a joint statement on Friday calling on Iranian authorities to “allow for the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisal”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained defiant in a televised address on Friday, saying: “The Islamic Republic came to power through the blood of several hundred thousand honourable people and it will not back down in the face of those who deny this.”

In later remarks broadcast on state television, Khamenei reiterated that his regime “will not shirk from dealing with destructive elements” who he said were “trying to please the president of the US”.

Meanwhile, the son of Iran’s last shah, who was deposed by an Islamic revolution in 1979, described the protests as “magnificent” and urged Iranians to continue over the weekend.

“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,” Reza Pahlavi said in a social media video.

US-based Pahlavi also said he was preparing to return to the country.

But former UK ambassador to Iran Sir Simon Gass told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “we really shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves” when discussing regime change.

He said the lack of organised opposition within Iran meant people did not have an alternative figure to coalesce around as things stood.

However, he noted the protests were “a much wider movement” than previous flare-ups, which were triggered by Iranians finding it “almost impossible to make ends meet because of the disaster to the economy”.

On Friday, President Trump reiterated his threat to Iran’s leadership that the US would “hit them very hard” if they “start killing people”.

He clarified that this did not mean “boots on the ground”. Last year, the US conducted air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, the US state department said accusations by Iran’s foreign minister that Washington and Israel were fuelling the protests were a “delusional attempt to deflect” attention from the challenges the regime was facing.

Taghi Rahmani, an Iranian political activist who spent 14 years in prison and whose wife, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, was re-arrested in December, said any lasting change must come from Iranians instead of foreign intervention.

The protests have been the most widespread since a 2022 uprising sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. More than 550 people were killed and 20,000 detained, according to human rights groups.

Additional reporting by Soroush Negahdari, Mallory Moench and Aleks Phillips

A video filmed by the US immigration agent who fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday has emerged, showing the moments before gunfire rang out.

The 47-second footage, obtained by conservative news outlet Alpha News, which is based in Minnesota, shows Renee Nicole Good sitting behind the wheel of her car and speaking to the officer.

US Vice-President JD Vance shared the clip on social media, commenting that the agent had acted in self-defence. Local officials have insisted the woman posed no danger.

Good’s wife has paid tribute to the 37-year-old, saying the pair were trying to support their neighbours when she was shot. Her death has sparked protests across the US.

President Donald Trump’s administration says Good tried to run over the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in an act of “domestic terrorism” after blocking the road and impeding the agency’s work.

Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has described that account as “garbage” based on the video footage.

The BBC has asked the homeland security department and the White House for comment on the new video that emerged on Friday.

The footage starts with the officer getting out of his car and filming Good’s vehicle and registration plate while he walks around the Honda SUV. A dog is in the backseat.

Good says: “That’s fine dude. I’m not mad at you.”

Her wife, Becca Good, is standing on the street filming the interaction with her mobile phone. She tells the ICE agent: “That’s OK, we don’t change our plates every morning just so you know. It will be the same plate when you come talk to us later.”

She adds: “You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say go and get yourself some lunch, big boy.”

Another agent approaches Good on the driver’s side and uses an expletive as he says: “Get out of the car.”

The agent filming the clip moves in front of Good’s car as she reverses.

In a chaotic couple of seconds, she turns the wheel to the right and pulls forwards.

The camera jerks up to the sky. “Woah, woah!” a voice says, as bangs are heard.

In the final part of the video the car is seen veering down the road. The ICE agent swears.

Other clips released previously from the scene show the maroon SUV crashed into the side of the road after the woman was shot by the agent.

The officer appears to stay on his feet, and is later seen in other videos walking towards Good’s crashed car.

Federal officials say the agent was injured and treated in hospital. The FBI is investigating the incident.

The officer who fired on Good is Jonathan Ross, a veteran ICE agent who was previously injured in the line of duty when he was struck by a car.

When asked about the video at the White House on Friday, President Trump said: “You have agitators and we will always be protecting ICE, and we’re always going to be protecting our border patrol and our law enforcement.”

On Friday, Vance reposted the video on X, and defended the agent’s actions, saying: “The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defence.”

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also reposted the video, saying the media had smeared an ICE agent who had “properly defended himself from being run over”.

Good’s wife told local media the pair had gone to the scene of immigration enforcement activity to support neighbours.

“We had whistles,” Becca Good said. “They had guns.”

When speaking about Good – a mother-of-three, including a six-year-old son – she said “kindness radiated out of her”.

“We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness,” she added.

Demonstrators turned out for a third night of protests on Friday over the killing of Good.

The Minneapolis Police Department told BBC News that at least 30 people were detained, cited and released after protests in the downtown area.

Photos showed protesters gathered outside a hotel in the city, believed to be where some ICE agents were staying.

Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety said it assisted police officers with arresting people suspected of unlawful assembly, after responding to an area around the Canopy Hotel in the city and giving dispersal orders.

The public safety department said it received “information that demonstrations were no longer peaceful and reports of damage to property”.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz earlier said he had activated the state’s National Guard to help with security of the protests.

On Friday, Minnesota officials said they would open an inquiry into the shooting after saying they had been frozen out of the federal investigation.

Trump was asked by a reporter at the White House on Friday whether the FBI should share its findings with Minnesota, and said: “Well normally I would, but they’re crooked officials.”

Hennepin County’s top prosecutor Mary Moriarty and the state’s Democratic attorney general, Keith Ellison, said they were launching their own probe.

It came a day after the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the FBI had initially pledged a joint investigation, then reversed course.

One federal agency that is not looking into the shooting is the US justice department’s Civil Rights Division, which has in the past investigated alleged excessive use of force by law enforcement.

But prosecutors have advised its criminal section that there will be no investigation in this case, sources told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

Governor Walz, a Democrat, has accused the Trump administration of blocking state officials, but Vice-President Vance said it was a federal matter.