Footage emerges claiming to show coronavirus victim body bags lined up in Iranian hospital

Footage claiming to show rows of body bags filled with people killed by the coronavirus in Iran has been shared online, amid fears the country is hiding the true extent of the disease outbreak. 

The country’s first vice president has reportedly been struck by the disease, which is also affecting eight per cent of Iran’s MPs and has killed 92.

Tehran announced total infections rose to 2,922 today and it was said the country’s most senior VP, Eshaq Jahangiri, was the latest high-profile figure to contract the disease. 

Footage was reportedly recorded by medical personnel in a hospital in the city of Qom in the northern Iranian province of the same name where the coronavirus, officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, was first detected.  

The unconfirmed video, which has been viewed over 836,000 times online, shows lines of seemingly full body bags lining the floors of the hospital.

The man recording walks through several rooms of the facility with more body bags seen on gurneys, with local media reporting the deceased are believed to be victims of COVID-19.

There has been no official response to the video and it is unclear why the bodies have not been buried, but at least one local journalist claims it is because there is no space.

The video, which MailOnline has not been able to verify, comes amid accusations that the regime has been concealing the true extent of the outbreak.  

Iranians were told Friday prayers – deeply significant in the Islamic Republic – were to be cancelled in the capital and in other areas after the death toll became the highest from the virus outside mainland China.

The judiciary meanwhile said it was freeing 54,000 inmates who have tested negative for the virus and posted bail. It added that these would not include ‘security prisoners’ jailed for more than five years.  

It comes after two Iranian men were filmed licking the walls and bars of holy shrines in the cities of Qom and Mashhad, in defiance of health warnings.

Iran on Wednesday reported 15 new deaths from the novel coronavirus and 586 additional cases. 

The provinces of Tehran and Qom were the worst-hit with 253 and 101 new cases of COVID-19 respectively, according to the spokesman.

The Shiite holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, is the epicentre of Iran’s coronavirus outbreak and where its first deaths were reported on February 19.

Authorities have since been scrambling to halt its rapid spread.

Schools have been shut, major cultural and sporting events suspended, and work hours cut back.

But the novel coronavirus is now present in all but one of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to the latest figures.

It comes amid fears that British-Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, might have been infected after her husband Richard Ratcliffe said she was suffering from cold-like symptoms over the weekend but had not been tested.

A judiciary spokesman poured scorn on the concerns yesterday and said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in good health. The Ayotallah meanwhile has been putting up a similarly combative front despite one of his most trusted advisers dying and eight percent of his parliament becoming infected. 

‘This calamity is not that big of a deal, and that there have been bigger ones in the past,’ Khamenei said yesterday while wearing a pair of protective gloves. ‘I do not want to underestimate this issue of course, but let us not overestimate it either.’ 

The Foreign Office has called on the Iranian government to immediately see to it that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was jailed on spurious espionage charges, be assessed by medical professionals.

Yesterday, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been granted a furlough either yesterday or today to visit her family.

However, the Iranian ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad referred opaquely to a ‘security prisoner’ being released on furlough and later deleted his tweet. 

On Friday, Mr Ratcliffe said he was concerned about the health of his wife who already suffers from from unexplained collapses to irregular heartbeats.

Sources suggest that she already has coronavirus but warned authorities are likely to supress this information and may deny her tests to prove whether she has it.

Another inmate is believed to have died from the virus and at least four others are said to have it. 

Khamenei yesterday reiterated the importance of Islamic faith in guiding the nation after one of his top brass Mohammad Mirmohammadi, member of the Expediency Council which is hand-picked by the Supreme Leader, died aged 71 on Monday.

‘Prayer can solve many problems,’ the Ayatollah said.

Despite this, Iran’s supreme leader has put the Islamic Republic’s armed forces on alert to assist health officials in combating the outbreak.

After downplaying the coronavirus as recently as last week, Iranian authorities have now said they had plans to potentially mobilize 300,000 soldiers and volunteers to confront the virus.  

Iranian media reported that 23 members of parliament now had the virus, as well as the head of the country’s emergency services. 

‘Whatever helps public health and prevents the spread of the disease is good and what helps to spread it is sin,’ Khamenei said, who has not worn gloves at past arbor day plantings. 

Khamenei also urged citizens to follow the health authorities’ instructions and praised their ‘honesty’ and ‘transparency,’ saying they have been keeping the public up to date since day one.

Mohammad Mirmohammadi is one of several regime members to have caught the virus, after vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar and visibly struggling health minister Iraj Harirchi were also infected. 

It comes as the Iranian regime was accused of ‘endangering the lives of Iranians and the world’ after alarming videos of worshippers licking a shrine emerged online. 

There are also fears that Iran is covering up the true scale of the crisis, with official figures showing a suspiciously high death rate – suggesting there may be more infections than the regime is willing to admit.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has claimed that the death toll is as high as 650 – nearly ten times the official count. 

Experts worry Iran’s percentage of deaths to infections, now around 3.3%, is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be far greater than current figures show.

Iran stands alone in how the virus has affected its government, even compared to hard-hit China, the epicenter of the outbreak. 

State media announced Mirmohammadi’s death yesterday morning in the virus’s most direct blow to the regime so far.

The Expediency Council which he sat on advises the Ayatollah and helps to settle disputes between the Supreme Leader and the Iranian parliament.

He previously served as the head of the presidency under former Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Khamenei, now the country’s supreme leader.

Mirmohammadi’s mother had died of the coronavirus in recent days as well, Iranian media reported.

Those sick also include Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar and Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who tried to downplay the virus before falling ill.