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Tehran - IRNA - At 3:00 PM on Sunday, June 15, 2021, the Tajrish neighborhood and Quds Square in northern Tehran are as crowded as ever, and life is going on as normal. Suddenly, a mountain of rubble and fire falls on passersby. The terrifying sound of the explosion and the screams of passersby are reminiscent of scenes seen on television from the events in the Gaza Strip.
IRNA Community Group - The Zionist regime's attack on the Quds Square area of Tehran (Tajrish area, Bahonar Street) turned this area into a ruin resembling a war scene. People, businessmen, and passersby each touched a corner of the disaster; from the shaking of the ground and the blast wave to seeing corpses and enduring sleepless nights. What you are reading is a collection of firsthand accounts from eyewitnesses who are the voices of the people at the heart of the incident.
On June 15, at around 3:00 PM, following an Israeli missile attack and aggression, the Tajrish neighborhood shook with two explosions. The blast wave also caused damage several kilometers away from the impact site.
The Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education said on June 16 that 12 people were martyred and about 59 civilians were injured in the Quds Square explosion, one of which was a pregnant woman.
This tragedy does not end with the official narrative of the number of dead and injured, but remains in the memories of the people who either survived or stood by the bereaved. In this report, firsthand witnesses tell in their own words about moments that changed their lives forever.
The streets that were filled with ordinary people moments before suddenly became a scene of war: “corpses on the asphalt, the wounded being pulled out of the rubble with their bare hands, cars stuck in ditches and burst water pipes, and the screams of children who had met their deaths in school.” The explosions did not just destroy walls; they also shattered nerves, minds, and public trust.
Now, about two weeks after the incident, life has returned to Bahonar and Tajrish streets. However, beyond this earthly reality, other narratives were circulating in cyberspace: those who considered the published images to be fake, suspected graphic processing, or saw the scale of the destruction as exaggerated. But what you will read below is more than just an image; it is the voice of those who were not on Twitter, but were in Tajrish. People who have returned from the incident, or are still stuck in it.
These narratives are neither analyses nor official reports; they are fragments of a harsh and cruel reality of an open aggression that still smells of blood, dirt, rubble, fear and smoke.
Gaza in Tajrish; fragmented, burnt and silent
The owner of the eyewear shop opposite the building hit by the missile, who remembers the incident well, said: At around 3 pm on June 15, I was on Fana Khosrow Street (northern side of Quds Square). When I heard the terrible sound of the explosion, I thought that the Tajrish Martyrs Hospital had been hit, but when I called my colleague in the shop, I realized that the building opposite the shop had been hit by a missile.
He continued: I quickly reached the shop, everything was dark and unbelievable, the street was full of stones and broken tree branches. The most terrifying thing was the bodies lying in the corners of the street. I couldn't bear to look at this scene and the bodies. I lowered my head and hurried to the shop.
The shopkeeper said: Nothing was there, everything in the shop had disappeared at once. The shop sign, the shop gate, the goods, the frames of the glasses, the lenses, everything was destroyed. It was exactly like the movies I had seen from the Gaza Strip; this street really looked like a street in Gaza.
In Quds Square, due to the crater created by the intensity of the explosion, the water pipes had burst and the street was completely filled with mud and water.
According to the owner of the glasses shop, the hole was so big and deep that a SUV had fallen into it, which was pulled out with a crane after a few hours. Even the electric poles had broken and fallen to the ground. The conditions were such that pedestrians were unable to move around in this area. Apart from rocks, water, and mud, there was a possibility of an explosion at any moment because high-voltage power cables were lying on the ground or in the water.
He said: "The minimum damage to my shop is several billion tomans, and a rough calculation shows what damage has been done to people."
I still have nightmares
A woman who works as a janitor at a girls' school on Bahonar Street also has another story about the June 15 incident. She pointed out that she had left the school with her husband to go shopping five minutes before the explosion and said: "The sound of the explosion was so loud that we hurriedly got out of the car and ran to the school."
According to her, "The scene was very terrifying. When I arrived at the street, fire, smoke, and dust were everywhere. The police, who were present at the scene, did not allow people to enter the area of the incident.
She continued: “I saw one of the parents of the students on the way back from school, who said that your children are safe, but my heart did not calm down. When I reached the school and called the children and saw that they were all elderly, I fainted from the pressure.”
The janitor said: “The school was severely damaged. The roof and windows of the classrooms were destroyed. My children were crying and were shocked by fear. The entrance door of the school had been opened due to the blast wave and people had brought the bodies inside the school.
She added: “There is still fear in the hearts of the children. We all think this was a terrible nightmare. Even though we left Tehran for two weeks, the fear still remains in me.”
Street full of blood, bodies and gravel
A juice seller around Quds Square also described the day of the incident as follows: We were inside our shop at around 3pm on Sunday when suddenly there was a loud noise and the ground shook. We quickly left the shop. A missile had hit the building opposite us.
Like other local merchants, at that moment he saw only rubble and broken glass, gravel, broken trees, blood, bodies and crumpled cars, saying, "Oh my God, it was a disaster."
He also said about the explosion of the second missile that hit the cars at the red light in Quds Square: The missile hit right between the cars, it was a very strange scene, as if I was watching an action movie - the cars were thrown several meters into the air, the area where the explosion took place is a taxi and bus station, the crowd standing there was either buried under the rubble and scrap metal of the cars or was thrown to a corner by the force of the explosion. No one survived this disaster.
According to him, at least 20 to 30 people were killed on the spot and more than 60 were injured. I do not believe the scene I saw with my own eyes and I give credit to those who claim that the film of the incident is the product of artificial intelligence. But you should know that the bodies, the wounded, the grieving people… these cannot be the result of imagination or rumor. I saw the moment of the explosion, alive.”
Explosion and destruction
A resident of the Tajrish neighborhood who lives a little further from the explosion site said: “We are about a thousand meters away from the scene of the accident, but the sound of the explosion was so strong that it was as if we were hit by something 10 meters away.”
He added: “The blast wave was so strong that all commercial, administrative, and residential units within a radius of several kilometers were damaged, from broken glass to the destruction of doors and walls.”
It was as if there was an earthquake of several magnitudes.
A young man whose regular hangout is Shafiei Street (the beginning of Bahonar Street) also said: I was at the hairdresser's when the sound of an explosion shattered the windows of the shop and the surrounding buildings. We rushed outside when another explosion was heard.
He, who was a few minutes away from the scene of the incident, reached the scene and described his observations as follows: I only saw people covered in blood lying on the ground. We were all terrified. It was as if an earthquake of several magnitudes had struck. Everyone was running towards them, but at the same time, a large crowd was busy helping and providing relief.
The boundary between reality and cyberspace
Official reports can tell about the number of dead, injured, and financial losses; but only the observations of the people tell the truth and can narrate what has happened to the people.
Human rights advocates should say, "What has happened to the people?" Was it the pregnant woman who had a doctor's appointment at Tajrish Hospital on Sunday afternoon, or the child who was eating ice cream with her father, the taxi driver who was working in the midday heat, or the businessman who was in his shop; they were all brutally raped.
Narratives of fear, destruction, injuries and losses of life and property, helplessness, and most importantly, the wounds that have been left in the minds of people cannot be easily repaired. Although this attack occurred in a few minutes, its unfortunate effects and consequences will never be forgotten, and perhaps the physical restoration of buildings is easier than the restoration of fear in the lives of children whose schools had become shelters for corpses.
In days when the boundary between reality and narrative has become blurred in cyberspace, field narratives from the people's mouths are more enlightening than anything else. When those behind their mobile phone screens call the images of explosions and blood “fake” or consider them the product of artificial intelligence, they cannot imagine for a moment what happened to the victims of this crime and the eyewitnesses of this horrific incident. This report is the voice of those who breathed their last at the epicenter of the disaster and have not yet recovered from its shock.
A child who came across a corpse at school or a shopkeeper whose everything was burned to the ground is not fake; it is living proof that the disaster really happened. Not artificial intelligence, not fabrication, not exaggeration. This report is a record of suffering that, if not seen, will be repeated again, and it is not only the journalist’s duty to reflect the news, but also the duty of every media outlet to take the side of truth between reality and narrative.