Iranian families have told the BBC that authorities are demanding large sums of money to release the bodies of protesters killed during recent national demonstrations. BBC Persian sources report that bodies are held in mortuaries and hospitals, and relatives must pay to get them for burial. At least 2,435 people have died in over two weeks of protests. In Rasht city, one family was asked for 700 million tomans ($5,000) to collect a loved one's body from Poursina Hospital, where at least 70 dead protesters are kept. In Tehran, a Kurdish worker’s family was told to pay one billion tomans ($7,000) but could not afford it and left without the body. Construction workers in Iran earn less than $100 a month. Hospital staff have warned some families by phone to quickly collect bodies before security forces demand money. A woman, unaware her husband was killed, was told over his phone to retrieve his body fast. She traveled seven hours in a pickup truck with her children, crying over the body. Reports from Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra mortuary say officials offer to release bodies free of charge if families claim the deceased was a Basij paramilitary killed by protesters. Families rejected demands to join pro-government rallies to label the bodies as martyr victims. Fearful of losing bodies, several families broke into a mortuary to take the corpses and protected them in the hospital courtyard until they could arrange private transport. An internet blackout limits full information from Iran, where protests began on 29 December due to economic crisis and escalated into anti-government rallies met with deadly force. Human Rights Activists News Agency reports over 2,435 killed, including 13 children, and 18,470 arrested. Arrests continue across Iran with activists, lawyers, and citizens detained by security forces and Revolutionary Guard units.