A human rights activist in Iran told VOA’s Persian service that according to her sources, authorities at Tehran’s Evin prison shot at prisoners who were fleeing the fire and smoke during a deadly blaze there Saturday.
"Everything we see from the government is just a disaster,” said Pouran Nazemi, a civil and human rights activist based in Iran. There was no immediate response from Tehran to her comments.
Iran says eight people were killed in the fire but Nazemi said the number is still unknown as "several hospitals are on alert" and that government forces "are standing in front of them and not letting anyone close."
According to the human rights activist, many prisoners have not yet contacted their families.
The fire came amid continuing protests in Iran sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman held by the country’s morality police for failing to properly cover her hair with a hijab.
Nazemi said that chants of "Death to the dictator" could be heard from inside the prison.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, citing one senior security official, had reported that inmates in one ward fought with prison personnel. The official said prisoners set fire to a warehouse full of prison uniforms.
Tehran’s governor Mohsen Mansouri said “This fire was caused by a fight between some prisoners” in the sewing workshop.
“The workshop was set up to create jobs” for prisoners, he said.
Iranian social media posts challenged state media accounts of the cause of the fire. A former inmate of Evin and rights activist Atena Daemi said in a tweet Sunday that normally all prisoners are sent to their wards and the workshops are closed by sunset.
