A man was shot and arrested in Iran after trying to break into president’s office, the deputy governor of Tehran was quoted as saying by Fars news agency on Monday.
“We are trying to identify the person and find out his motivation,” Mohsen Hamedani added.
The man was wielding a large knife, according to Tasnim news agency, and was wearing white shroud, symbolizing his readiness to sacrifice his life.
The attacker was shot at leg when trying to pass the security gate of the presidential office in Pasteur Street in central Tehran.
It is a high security area as other key government institutions are also located there.
NAN recalls that in June 7, 2017, Iranian officials said suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Iran’s parliament and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran, killing 12 people in a twin assault at the heart of the Islamic Republic.
Islamic State claimed responsibility and released a video purporting to show gunmen inside the parliament building and one body, apparently dead, on the floor.
The rare attacks were the first claimed by the hardline Sunni Muslim militant group inside in the tightly controlled Shi’ite Muslim country.
Islamic State has regularly threatened Iran, one of the powers leading the fight against the militants’ forces in neighbouring Iraq and, beyond that, Syria.
The raids took place at a particularly charged time, after Iran’s main regional rival Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.
Attackers dressed as women burst through parliament’s main entrance in central Tehran, deputy interior minister Mohammad Zolfaghari said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Zolfaghari said one of them detonated a suicide vest in the parliament.
About five hours after the first reports, Iranian news agencies said four people who had attacked parliament were dead and the incident was over.
At least 12 people were killed by the attackers, the head of Iran’s emergency department, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, was quoted as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.
Soon after the assault on parliament, another bomber detonated a suicide vest near the shrine of the Republic’s revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, a few kilometres south of the city, Zolfaghari said, according to Tasnim.
