An Iranian security officer told a couple they had 10 minutes to grieve as authorities showed them the body of their daughter, a woman in her 20s who had been killed during protests in the central city of Isfahan, according to people familiar with the case.

The parents had searched hospitals and morgues for days after their daughter failed to return home from demonstrations. They said security forces demanded 700 million tomans (about $4,400) in what authorities described as compensation for the bullet that killed her. The couple were then driven about five hours to another town, where her body had been placed in an unmarked grave, they said.

Iran has experienced a near-total communications blackout for more than a week, leaving many families unable to determine whether relatives who joined protests are alive or dead. Authorities have restricted internet and mobile phone access as demonstrations spread across the country.

On Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged for the first time that “several thousand” people have been killed since protests began about three weeks ago. In a televised address, he blamed demonstrators, calling them agents of the United States and alleging that some were armed with weapons brought into the country from abroad.

Iranian officials have not released detailed casualty figures. However, a report compiled by doctors inside Iran and shared with The Sunday Times claims that at least 16,500 protesters have been killed and more than 330,000 injured. The newspaper said it could not independently verify the figures.

Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon who helped coordinate the medical network behind the report, said doctors have documented widespread use of live ammunition and military-grade weapons. He said many injuries involved gunshot and shrapnel wounds to the head, neck and chest.

Parasta said the doctors communicated using Starlink satellite internet terminals, which activists have smuggled into Iran to bypass government restrictions. The terminals are illegal in Iran, and their use carries significant risk, he said.

Witnesses who fled Iran described security forces firing live ammunition at crowds, including from rooftops and vehicles. Several said members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Basij militia used automatic weapons, while others reported that foreign Shiite militias may have been involved. These accounts could not be independently confirmed.

Medical staff at multiple hospitals reported severe shortages of blood supplies, according to the doctors’ report. Some surgeons said security forces blocked blood transfusions for injured protesters, leading to preventable deaths.

The report also cites widespread eye injuries, including hundreds of cases in which patients lost vision after being struck by pellets or bullets. One ophthalmologist said his hospital was overwhelmed by the volume of eye trauma cases.

Human rights activists say many injured protesters avoid hospitals for fear of arrest. Witnesses described security forces searching phones at checkpoints and detaining people with visible wounds consistent with protest-related injuries.

The protests began in late December, initially driven by economic grievances, including inflation and currency depreciation. They expanded rapidly after opposition figures called for nationwide demonstrations, spreading to cities and towns across all 31 provinces.

Younger Iranians have played a prominent role, echoing the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that followed the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody. Analysts say the current unrest reflects long-standing frustration over political repression, economic hardship and social restrictions.

Among those whose whereabouts were briefly unknown was rapper Toomaj Salehi, who has criticized Iran’s leadership in his music. His family said he managed to make brief contact this week to confirm he was alive after days without communication.

While large street protests have subsided amid the crackdown, analysts say underlying tensions remain. Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said public anger has not dissipated and that “something has fundamentally shifted” in Iranian society.

Iran has experienced multiple waves of protests since the 2009 Green Movement, each met with force by authorities. Activists say the scale of casualties and communications restrictions during the current unrest are among the most severe in the Islamic Republic’s history.

For many families, the cost has already been personal. One of the dead was Yasin Mirzaei, 28, who had been preparing to pursue doctoral studies in Britain. He was killed by a gunshot to the head during a demonstration in western Iran on Jan. 8, according to relatives.

“He went out knowing the risk,” his uncle said from Turkey. “He believed that freedom was worth it.”