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

Doctors in Tehran have described overwhelmed medical staff as thousands of demonstrators have been killed by security forces

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 have been shot. Medical staff said that the gunshot wounds were mostly concentrated on protesters' eyes and head - a tactic that rights groups said authorities used against demonstrators in the country's 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests.