TEHRAN, Nov 29, (Agen-cies): Protesters stormed Britain’s embassy and another diplomatic compound in Tehran on Tuesday, sparking international alarm and dramatically raising tensions with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Protesters remained in both properties, trashing offices, stealing documents and defying police efforts to remove them, according to an AFP journalist and Iranian media at the scene.
Six British diplomats sequestered for more than two hours inside a building in Britain’s diplomatic compound in the north of the capital were finally able to get through a crowd of hundreds of protesters after intervention from diplomatic police, the Fars news agency reported.
Inside the embassy in the city centre, several protesters scattered documents and set fire to them, witnesses told AFP.

The demonstrators were showing their anger at Britain’s announcement last week that it was cutting off all relations with Iran’s financial sector as part of a raft of sanctions coordinated with the United States and Canada.

Iran responded by passing a law Monday to expel Britain’s ambassador within the next two weeks. Britain has warned it will act “robustly” if Iran’s foreign ministry complies.

Police, who had already chased out a group of more than 20 protesters from the embassy grounds, fired tear gas to try to dislodge the group inside the mission, Fars reported.

The news agency said several protesters were injured, one critically. Several officers were also hurt.
Protesters had ripped down Britain’s flag at the embassy, replacing it with Iran’s, and broken windows and vandalised buildings and vehicles.

One protester was seen climbing the wall with a looted portrait of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Outside the embassy, a crowd of hundreds had chanted “Death to Britain” before being dispersed.
The violent scenes recalled the taking of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 by Islamic students who held 52 diplomats inside hostage for 444 days, leading to the break in US-Iranian diplomatic relations.
Britain reacted with outrage to Tuesday’s incursion into its embassy, saying it was “utterly unacceptable and we condemn it.” The Foreign Office warned Britons in Iran to stay indoors.

Other nations also condemned the violation of Britain’s diplomatic properties, which Iran was responsible for protecting.

“France holds the Iranian authorities responsible for the integrity of all diplomatic missions in Tehran,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

“Once more, the Iranian regime has shown what little consideration it has for international law,” he said.
Russia — Iran’s closest ally — said the embassy attack was “unacceptable and deserving condemnation.”

The foreign ministry in Moscow called on Iranian authorities “to immediately restore order, investigate what happened, and prevent a repetition of such incidents.”
The looting of the British embassy came ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday that was expected to reveal new sanctions against Iran.
The European Union and the United States said on Monday they were considering extra measures to pressure Iran on its nuclear activities.

The West suspects Iran is seeking to build an atomic arsenal — a fear crystallised in a report by the UN nuclear watchdog this month that strongly suggested Tehran had researched nuclear warheads.
Iran has repeatedly denied its nuclear programme is anything but for peaceful, civilian purposes. It has warned it would respond to any military attack by raining missiles on Israel and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry Tuesday expressed regret over the “unacceptable” storming of the British embassy in Tehran, saying that “a small number of protesters” were to blame.
In a statement, the ministry expressed “regret for certain unacceptable behaviour by a small number of protesters in spite of efforts by the police” at the British embassy.
“The relevant authorities have been asked to take the necessary measures and look into this issue immediately,” it said.

Demonstrators waved flags symbolising martyrdom and held up portraits of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But an Iranian official told Reuters that the storming of two compounds in Tehran was not planned by the government.
“It was not an organised measure. The establishment had no role in it. It was not planned,” said the official, who declined to be identified.
A separate group of protesters broke into a second British Embassy compound in the north of the city, the IRNA state news agency said, and seized classified documents.
Police tried to eject some 100 protesters from the north Tehran compound, what was once the embassy’s summer quarters and which is now used to house diplomatic staff.
Riot police later moved in and mounted the main embassy gates, television pictures showed, and began to slowly clear demonstrators.
The incident followed Britain’s imposition of new sanctions on the Islamic state last week over its nuclear programme.
London banned all British financial institutions from doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the Central Bank of Iran, as part of a new wave of sanctions by Western countries.
In London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain expected other countries to follow its lead in imposing financial sanctions on Iran and will take “robust” action if Tehran reduces their diplomatic relations.
Hague was speaking in a parliamentary debate just as news broke of the incident in Tehran and he made no comment on it.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, often at odds with conservatives who control the parliament, has five days to expel Britain’s ambassador, the speaker of parliament said.
“Parliament officially notified the president over a bill regarding degrading the ties with Britain, obliging the government to implement it within five days,” Fars news agency quoted speaker Ali Larijani as saying.
Trita Parsi, a US-based expert on Iranian relations with the West said the attacks were very worrisome development.
“It is yet another sign that rather than permitting diplomacy to de-escalate the situation, tensions between Iran and the West are on the rise with Iran’s continued nuclear work, sabotage, assassinations, sanctions and now the attack on the embassy,” he told Reuters.Demonstrators waved flags symbolising martyrdom and held up portraits of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But an Iranian official told Reuters that the storming of two compounds in Tehran was not planned by the government.
“It was not an organised measure. The establishment had no role in it. It was not planned,” said the official, who declined to be identified.
A separate group of protesters broke into a second British Embassy compound in the north of the city, the IRNA state news agency said, and seized classified documents.
Police tried to eject some 100 protesters from the north Tehran compound, what was once the embassy’s summer quarters and which is now used to house diplomatic staff.
Riot police later moved in and mounted the main embassy gates, television pictures showed, and began to slowly clear demonstrators.
In London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain expected other countries to follow its lead in imposing financial sanctions on Iran and will take “robust” action if Tehran reduces their diplomatic relations.
Hague was speaking in a parliamentary debate just as news broke of the incident in Tehran and he made no comment on it.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, often at odds with conservatives who control the parliament, has five days to expel Britain’s ambassador, the speaker of parliament said.
“Parliament officially notified the president over a bill regarding degrading the ties with Britain, obliging the government to implement it within five days,” Fars news agency quoted speaker Ali Larijani as saying.
Trita Parsi, a US-based expert on Iranian relations with the West said the attacks were very worrisome development.
“It is yet another sign that rather than permitting diplomacy to de-escalate the situation, tensions between Iran and the West are on the rise with Iran’s continued nuclear work, sabotage, assassinations, sanctions and now the attack on the embassy,” he told Reuters.