Video of protesters stopping Iran hanging hits Internet

Stunning footage has emerged of protesters in the Iranian city of Sirjan rescuing two men from being hanged by the regime.

The video, uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, shows a brutal clash between Iranian authorities and protesters that was largely overlooked until Gateway Pundit found video footage of it. A Reuters report from last Wednesday stated that security forces "shot dead two gunmen" in the melee that followed the rescue, but, as Jim Hoft points out at Gateway Pundit, "the only ones with guns in the video are the regime thugs."

Footage shot by an amateur cameraman shows a crowd of people descending on a gallows where two men -- Esmail Fathi-Zadeh and Mohammad Esfandiarpoor, reportedly both convicted bank robbers -- are being hanged. Protesters rush the gallows and hold up the men, preventing them from choking to death, until someone manages to cut them down. Then gunshots can be heard, and the crowd flees as security officers rush the area.

The cameraman then finds his way to a young man, presumably a protester, lying on the ground. He has been shot in the chest.

Reuters reported that 25 people were injured in the melee.

"When you see footage such as this, with anti-regime Iranian protesters losing any concern about their own safety, it's hard to imagine the current leadership hanging on," writes Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider.

The following video was recorded December 22, 2009, and uploaded to the Web December 26, 2009.