TEHRAN — Dozens of hardline student protesters stormed the British Embassy and another British compound in Tehran Tuesday, destroying papers, reportedly setting the Union Jack flag afire and even carrying off a portrait of the Queen while staff fled to safety.
In the face of the ongoing violence, which reportedly flared up again after police first chased about 20 youths from the embassy, the Foreign Office warned British nationals in Iran to “stay indoors, keep a low profile and await further advice.”
PHOTOS: BRITISH EMBASSY ATTACKED BY PROTESTERS
No injuries were immediately reported. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said late Tuesday that it appeared all staff and their dependents were accounted for, although it was not clear how many had fled or where they were.
World leaders were quick to condemn the actions. British Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack “outrageous and indefensible” and warned, “The Iranian government must recognize that there will be serious consequences for failing to protect our staff.
“We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days.”
In Washington, US President Barack Obama said “all of us are deeply disturbed” by the incidents and “that kind of behavior is not acceptable.”
Even staunch Iran ally Russia joined in, with the foreign ministry calling the attacks “unacceptable and deserving condemnation.”
Iran’s foreign ministry expressed regret over the “unacceptable” storming of the buildings, blaming it on “a small number of protesters.” Tehran police chief General Hossein Sajadinia said several protesters had been arrested and would face the courts, AFP reported.
The two assaults, which echoed the Nov. 4, 1979 storming of the US Embassy in Tehran — a raid that resulted in 52 Americans being held for 444 days — ratcheted up already smoldering tensions between Iran and the West, which fears Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
They also followed London’s unveiling last week of new economic sanctions against Iran and Iran’s parliament voting over the weekend to expel the British ambassador.
In Monday’s double-barreled attacks, about 20 protesters reportedly linked to Muslim Students Followers of the Supreme Leader clambered over the embassy walls and began ransacking offices and smashing windows.
Sky News said they reportedly set fire to the British flag as they chanted, “Down With Britain,” “Down With America” and “Down with Israel.”
Iranian state television coverage showed one protester carrying off a looted portrait of Queen Elizabeth II while others threw embassy papers in the air.
One photo showed the royal coat of arms dislodged and dangling at a precarious angle from the front of the building.
Iran’s Fars news agency showed a pair of seemingly bloody handprints over the compound’s entrance sign. The veracity of the photograph could not be immediately confirmed.
According to AFP, police managed to chase them out but they re-entered late Tuesday and witnesses said they again set papers on fire.
Tear gas was fired to disperse the crowd, and a number of protesters were injured, Fars reported.
At the second British diplomatic facility in the north of Tehran, AFP reported that between 100 and 300 protesters burst in and occupied the property, which Iranian media said housed schools and residences.
The student group reportedly released a statement apparently written in blood that denounced the British diplomatic mission as “another nest of spies,” according to The (London) Daily Telegraph.
“Our people are not prepared to be humiliated any more under any circumstances and prefer a red death to a condemned life of misery,” it said. “We are ready to be killed for our aims.”
In London, Hague warned, “The United Kingdom takes this irresponsible action extremely seriously.
“It amounts to a grave breach of the Vienna Convention which requires the protection of diplomats and diplomatic premises under all circumstances.
“We hold the Iranian government responsible for its failure to take adequate measures to protect our embassy, as it is required to do.”
He said Britain had made it clear to the Iranian government “they must take immediate steps to ensure the safety of UK personnel, to ensure that property taken from the embassy compounds is returned and to secure the compounds with immediate effect.”
At the UN, the Security Council issued a statement saying its members “condemned in the strongest terms the attacks” against the British embassy but did not threaten any action.
The Security Council has passed four rounds of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.