But who knows. The British report said the dead were repeatedly driven over with the tanks, and then washed down the sewer drains with fire hoses.
That seems a bit over the top and time consuming. BUT, in the uncropped photos, there were hundreds of tanks in the square.
A British report, based on inside intelligence, estimated the dead at 10,000.
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Yes - it was also in several Chinese reports based on first hand witnesses. Not excessive and over the top for China; especially when you consider the stakes facing Deng. They were Mountain Troops and were told the people were terrorists. When you take the official figure of 2,000 odd and put that against the continuous firing of armor piercing rounds by troop held automatic weapons (including heavy tank mounted weapons) for 48 hours, the official figure seems very low. Even 10,000 may be low - we will never know. There were likely millions of rounds fired during those days.
The 500-1000 figure likely counts only the known dead who were among the early student protestors, not the later protestors who swarmed into the Square, nor the people on the buses, in cars, on balconies, in their apartments eating dinner, those returning home from work, reporters, the local troops and their APCs, or those who died at makeshift aide stations - since the hospitals only admitted the PLA troops.
There was a full mechanized division in the Square. They were told to get rid of the terrorists which was why they ran them over with tracked vehicles (photos on web), bulldozed them into plies, set them on fire, washed the remains down the sewers - gone, troops congratulated and sent back to the mountains, Deng all happy. West all befuddled; think was just one guy against a tank - minutes later the secret police chased him across the street and beat him to death. Deng all happy.