Verifying protests and deaths in Iran - amid brutal crackdown and internet shutdown

Footage posted today on social media shows protesters gathered on the streets of the city of Marvdasht in the southern Iranian Fars province, as a fire burns in the background.

Sky News' Data and Forensics team has verified the video, which is among the latest to emerge from widespread protests in Iran which began in Tehran on 28 December.

The Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports eight arrests in Marvdasht on 12 January.

We have identified nearly 900 protest events in total, through a combination of Sky News Data and Forensics research and monitoring by Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Observed protest activity peaked at 179 on 8 January, when the internet was shut down.

Since then, significantly less activity has been observed, though this is likely at least partially due to restricted internet access.

In total, 881 protest events have been verified, across all 31 Iranian provinces.

In the latest 48 hours, half of the 12 protests we verified were in Tehran, with others observed in the cities of Marvdasht in the south and Urmia to the north.

Security forces have fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters in at least three different cities since 11 January.

Researchers at ISW note that the higher volume of videos emerging from cities may be related to better access to Starlink internet, and while it is likely that there are more protests than we know of, it is possible that the rate of protests has decreased overall in response to the regime's brutal crackdown.

What we know about the number of dead

At least 2,003 people have died so far during the ongoing protests in Iran, according to deaths verified by HRANA, an Iranian human rights organisation and news agency. These numbers were echoed by an Iranian official via Reuters.

Sky News has collected the names of approximately 100 people reported dead, with thousands more unidentified, and has been able to independently confirm further details for at least 75 people.

Among the confirmed victims is at least one 15-year-old.

Some 1,850 of these verified deaths are protestors, while 135 were identified as security personnel. HRANA is investigating a further 779 deaths, which could bring the total to over 2,700.

HRANA verifies deaths using an aggregation of visual documentation and evidence around morgue facilities.

A further 16,784 people are believed to have been arrested in little over two weeks, according to HRANA. Over 8,000 of these arrests were recorded on 11 January.

Footage showing body bags inside a forensics institute in Kahrizak, South of Tehran has circulated online, with analysis suggesting that there are 250 bodies in one morgue alone.

The People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), a left-wing dissident organisation which is in opposition to the government, has said that the death toll has reached over 3,000 since the protests began.

The figure of 3,000 deaths spans across 195 cities and PMOI says it has been collated from hospitals, local sources, forensic medicine centres, and families of the deceased. Sky News has not independently verified this figure.

With an internet blackout since 8 January and ongoing protests, information is scarce. Higher figures on deaths and arrests are likely to follow when communication is restored.

The Data x Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

(c) Sky News 2026: Verifying protests and deaths in Iran - amid brutal crackdown and internet shutdown