German police officials arrested fifty people Tuesday after a group of Iranian opposition supporters vandalized the interior of the Iranian consulate building in Hamburg and then rioted outside.
Police said a group of some 20 exiled Iranians entered the consulate in the northern port city of Hamburg late on Tuesday morning and began overturning tables and spray-painting the walls red.
The rioters left of their own accord and joined with a further 30 people in throwing stones and fruit at the building and burning an Iranian flag. They also spray-painted walls outside the consulate and nearby cars, according to AFP.
Police said the group was protesting against a crackdown on the Iranian opposition in France and the treatment of anti-regime demonstrators in Tehran.
French anti-terrorist police on Tuesday launched a massive crackdown on the leading Iranian armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, detaining 165 people in a series of dawn raids in the Paris region. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
