Warning: this story contains graphic content which some readers might find distressing
Hundreds of photos revealing the faces of those killed during Iran's violent crackdown on anti-government protests have been leaked to BBC Verify.
The pictures, which are too graphic to show without blurring, reveal the bloodied, swollen and bruised faces of at least 326 victims - including 18 women. The images, displayed in a south Tehran mortuary, are one of the only ways families have been able to identify their dead loved ones.
Many of the victims were too disfigured to be identified, and 69 people had been labelled in Persian as John or Jane Doe, suggesting their identity was unknown when the photo was taken. Only 28 of the victims had labels with clearly visible names in the photos.
Labels on more than 100 victims, who had their date of death recorded, showed that date as 9 January, one of the deadliest nights for protesters in Tehran so far.
The city's streets were set on fire during clashes with security forces, with protesters chanting slogans against the supreme leader and the Islamic Republic. It followed a call for nationwide protests from Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah.
The leaked photos provide a small snapshot of the thousands believed to have been killed at the hands of the Iranian state.
BBC Verify has been tracking the spread of protests across Iran since they 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 government's violence against those who oppose it.
Despite the blackout entering its third week, a small number of people have managed to get some information out. Hundreds of close-up images of victims taken from inside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre were leaked to BBC Verify.
We analysed 392 photos of victims and were able to identify 326 people - some had multiple pictures taken of them from different angles. Sources claimed the true number of dead at the mortuary ran into the thousands. One source, who we are not naming for their safety, told us they weren't prepared for the level of devastation they encountered inside the mortuary complex, saying, It was just too much.\
Many photos showed unzipped body bags with papers laid close to their faces, identifying them by name, ID number or date of death. In some cases, the only identifier was a bank card laid on top of a body bag – the victims' last remaining possession.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has acknowledged several thousand people have been killed but blamed the US, Israel and those he described as seditionists. Reports estimate that more than 4,000 deaths have occurred since the protests began.
