Four people were arrested after they climbed on to a first-floor balcony of the Iranian embassy in London on Friday and waved flags in an apparent protest against the government in Tehran.
The four were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and being unlawfully on diplomatic premises, a spokeswoman for Londonโs Metropolitan Police said.
No one was hurt during the incident and the four were arrested when they came down voluntarily after around three hours.
Iranโs ambassador to Britain, Hamid Baeidnejad, tweeted that the assailants were โadvocates of the Shirazi cultโ and had replaced Iranโs national flag with that of their group. He said all staff at the embassy were safe.
Shiโite cleric Grand Ayatollah Sadegh Hossein Shirazi, whose son was recently arrested for insulting Iranโs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been a fierce critic of Iranโs clerical leadership.
Iranian state television quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had protested about the incident to the British ambassador in Tehran.
โBritain is responsible for the safety of Iranian diplomats,โ said the spokesman, Bahram Qasemi.
Iranโs state news agency IRNA said the attackers had carried knives and sticks. Iranโs English-language Press TV said a religious group was behind the attack, without elaborating.
Images posted on social media showed four men in black attire on the balcony of the embassy, waving a blue and white flag.
In 1980, gunmen seized the embassy to try to secure the release of Iranian political prisoners. One hostage was killed in the five-day siege, and another died when British commandos stormed the building, killing all but one of the gunmen.
