Video – Shots fired at monster rally in Tehran

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq0atdatJVE

Jon Lynn BBC, June 15, 2009

It was an incredible sight. A huge crowd, hundreds of thousands of people maybe even millions of people there in defiance of open threats from the government that they should not assemble.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLGVDsSjGK0
Cellphone video

The security forces were staying well away – we were even able to film and usually the secret police come in straight away and stop you. But the crowds were so enormous they were stepping back. As we drove out we saw rows of riot police stationed on the highway.

If they have opened fire, that is going to really ratchet up this, it could be frankly a huge political mistake for those running this country.

Shots have been fired at a rally in Iran where hundreds of thousands of people were demonstrating against last week’s presidential election results.

One protester was killed and several more were hurt when security forces opened fire.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne, in Tehran, says Monday’s rally was the biggest demonstration in the Islamic republic’s 30-year history and described it as a “political earthquake”.

The government had outlawed any protest following two days of unrest, with the interior ministry warning that “any disrupter of public security would be dealt with according to the law”.

Despite this, correspondents said riot police had been watching the rally during the afternoon and had seemed to be taking no action.

But reports at 2045 local time (1615 GMT) said shots were being fired.

“There has been sporadic shooting out there… I can see people running here,” Reuters quoted a reporter of Iran’s Press TV as saying from Tehran’s Azadi Square.

“A number of people who are armed, I don’t know exactly who they are, but they have started to fire on people causing havoc in Azadi Square.”

For the rest of the story, see BBC News.
The crowd had been addressed by Mir Hossein Mousavi, who believes the vote was fixed in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr Ahmadinejad has dismissed the claims and says the vote was fair.