‘There’s no safe place any more’: inside Tehran under attack – photo essay

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Iranians woke up on Thursday to a new round of explosions in Tehran, on the sixth day of war since the US and Israel launched attacks that have so far killed more than 1,200 people, including the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

The casualties include 168 children who were killed at a school in the southern province of Hormozgan; thousands more people have been injured.

A grief-stricken man crouches with his hands over his ears in the street. Behind are other mourners including crying women in black hijabs and full-length abayas

Mourners hold up pictures of the late ayatollah

A woman in black hijab leans against a railing in grief. Other people are out of focus behind

Washington has vowed to hit targets “deeper” in Iran, while Israeli officials said they had dropped more than 5,000 bombs since the start of the assault.

Iran has retaliated with missiles and drones, hitting targets across the Middle East, including in Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, vowing the country would defend itself.

Just a week ago, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was in Geneva for a third round of nuclear negotiations where he said Tehran and Washington had moved “closer to agreement”. Two days later, Israel and the US launched a war without a clear legal mandate or basis, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public.

Tehran, home to about 10 million people, has been burning since, with civilians bearing the brunt of the conflict. Mohammad Mohsenifar, an Iranian photographer, has been covering the destruction.

View from out of a shattered window looking down on dust and debris below. Apartment blocks opposite have blown-out windows

The twisted wreckage of two cars, one on its side, outside the apartment blocks

On Wednesday, a residential complex in south-eastern Tehran was struck, leaving two apartment blocks completely destroyed and five others badly damaged. “Residents have evacuated their homes,” a distressed man said, explaining that his sister lived nearby.

Flames and smoke are visible at the top of apartment block, which is a mess of twisted wreckage and missing its roof

View looking up at civilian rescuers standing on top floor of the blown-out building

A man and woman look through their belongings in a living room. White blankets have been placed over furniture

Books, a blanket and a bead necklace are among the belongings

Smoke still billows from the ruins as first responders carry away the dead and treat the injured. Firefighters spray water on to what remains of a building reduced to a twisted skeleton of concrete, brick and rebar. People cry, and the cold air is thick with smoke, making it harsh to breathe. The Alborz mountains surrounding the city trap not only the winter smog, but now also the choking smoke of airstrikes.

Three teenage girls sit by the roadside as a man stands behind checking his phone. Yellow tape, blurred in the foreground, covers the bottom part of the picture

The scene here in south-eastern Tehran is chaotic. A group of teenage girls sit by the roadside, their faces blank as people run past. A woman hurriedly shoves a few of her belongings into a car, carefully placing a cage with her two cockatiel birds on the passenger seat. Others rush back into damaged apartments to grab what they can: documents, electronics, a few valuables.

A woman hurriedly shoves a few of her belongings into a car, carefully placing a cage with her two cockatiel birds on the passenger seat

Blankets are thrown over furniture and sofas to cover and protect them; most things are left behind as families abandon their homes to seek shelter with relatives outside the city, towards the mountains of Gilan or the Caspian Sea.

The bare feet of a person protrude from beneath a blanket as they lay in the back of an ambulance

Nearby, first responders lift a body into an ambulance. A white stuffed rabbit, grey with dust, lies among the debris. There are books, prayer beads, shattered glass.

And then there is blood. Thick strands of hair. Pieces of bodies scattered through the rubble, collected into plastic bags.

“One of the worst things are the second strikes,” said Mohsenifar, adding that sometimes new blasts hit minutes after first responders have arrived. “This has increased the number of casualties, but has also made rescue teams hesitant to approach a scene right after a blast, as they often anticipate a second explosion,” he said.

A man, facing the opposite way, puts an arm around a woman who is looking down the street

Despite the war, Tehran – with its sprawling old parks and snow-capped mountains – has not come to a complete standstill. Schools and universities immediately closed on Saturday when the conflict began, but many shops and markets are still open, and some restaurants continue to serve Iftar meals at sunset as Iranians break their fast during Ramadan.

A confused-looking man sits by railings as smoke billows in the background

A young man looks emotional as she sits leaning against railings

Two men stand either side of the collapsed man. The man on the right has his arms around him as they bring him to his feet

An internet blackout has made it essentially impossible for many to reach family members and friends.

On Tuesday, a strike landed near Azadi Square, briefly shutting the highway that links the capital to the eastern provinces. The same day, a police station was hit near Enghelab Square in the heart of the city, an area that in recent days had been filled with mourning crowds after the death of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was announced.

A man runs towards the left of the picture, past a destroyed building behind. A mural of the ayatollah is on a wall of an adjacent building

A small tree, which has been uprooted by the strike, burns at the roadside amid debris

A destroyed car by a mural painted on a wall, which includes images of Iranian sportsmen and surgeons

A shocked-looking middle-aged man with blood dripping down the side of his face

Two dead bodies in black body bags placed on the road in front of a damaged car

The open driver-side door of a destroyed car reveals blood that has run down from the driver's seat

“Several citizens passing through Azadi Square in their cars were injured by the blast, and I saw the bodies of two people who were killed,” Mohsenifar said.

The scene after the explosion was chaotic: charred cars lined the roadside, people rushed past, some visibly injured. A man collapsed. A green city bus, its windows shattered, stood by the curb, black smoke rising behind it. A large sticker on the side read: “Lovely Tehran.”

Green bus with its windows blown out. It has a large sticker saying 'Lovely Tehran' at one end

A destroyed taxi alongside a destroyed building. Rubble has been blown into the street

Earlier this year, this area saw anti-government protests that swept across the country, with reports suggesting casualty numbers ranging from 5,000 to 20,000, according to the UN special rapporteur Mai Sato.

Men and women weep in the street, including one woman kneeling on the road with head bowed

Some people still venture on to the streets to queue for bread or check on relatives, but they move with caution. Few cars are on the road and journeys are limited to those that are absolutely necessary.

Broad landscape view of debris in the street from a destroyed building, on a road leading to Azadi Tower (an inverted Y-shaped structure) in the distance. Vehicles, some damaged, are stopped in the road as people and rescuers walk around

Mohsenifar, who grew up in Tehran, said one of the most frightening moments on the road was when the traffic lights turn red and a driver is forced to wait. The city’s once lively, traffic-jammed streets are now eerily quiet. Explosions echo in the distance, without warning.

“Stopping feels dangerous, but driving feels just as risky, because there’s no safe place in Tehran any more,” he added.

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