Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday as Shi'ite Muslim Iran reacted with fury to Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. Demonstrators who had massed at the embassy gates to protest against cleric Nimr al-Nimr's execution broke into the embassy and started fires before being cleared away by the police, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.
Pictures posted on Twitter showed parts of the interior on fire and smashed furniture inside one office. Shortly afterwards, Iran's foreign ministry issued a statement calling for calm and urging protesters to respect the diplomatic premises.
Tehran's police chief, Hossein Sajedinia, told ISNA that an unspecified number of "unruly elements" had been arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks.
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