Four days after an Iranian missile left the bodies of 176 people scattered across a Tehran suburb Iran finally reached boiling point.

Pressure had been building as the evidence mounted that the regime was behind the tragic downing of Flight PS752.

But when the admission came from Iran's leaders, protesters hit the streets on Saturday night for the first time since Wednesday's accident.

Crowds of students gathered outside a central Tehran university to denounce the Revolutionary Guard, the elite military force answerable directly to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Shame on you,” they shouted. “End your rule over the country.”

After officially denying any involvement in the crash, Iran abruptly reversed course on Saturday morning and said “human error” had led its forces to shoot down Flight PS752 after mistaking it for a US cruise missile.

The surging anger over the crash and the days of false denials comes at a sensitive moment in Iran and just weeks after the regime’s forces killed hundreds of civilians while crushing nationwide protests.