FRANCE AND INDIA: IRANIAN STUDENTS TAKE OVER PARTS EMBASSY AND BOMBAY CONSULATE IN SUPPORT OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINY.

Record ID: 1053959

  • Title: FRANCE AND INDIA: IRANIAN STUDENTS TAKE OVER PARTS EMBASSY AND BOMBAY CONSULATE IN SUPPORT OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINY.
  • Date: 24th January 1979
  • Summary: 1. GV & SV (PARIS) Students inside Iranian embassy grounds holding up pictures of Ayatollah Khomeiny. (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. GV Buses arrive carrying police. 0.19 3. GV & SV Demonstrators inside grounds. 0.27 4. GV Police getting off bus. 0.35 5. SV Portrait of Khomeiny hanging from balcony PULL BACK TO police outside. (2 SHOTS) 0.48 6.
  • Embargoed: 7th February 1979 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Access Restrictions:This media cannot be downloaded as there may be copyright restrictions. Please contact us for more information
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE AND BOMBAY, INDIA
  • City:
  • Country: France India
  • Reuters ID: LVA1F69SCHMCDN5AVSD6Y3PD1MQ4
  • Story Text:Despite the fact that Dr. Shahpur Bakhitiar's government in Iran has closed Teheran airport, reports from Paris indicate that exiled religious leader the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny is still intending to fly home on Friday (26 January). If he is allowed to land he is expected to receive a tumultuous welcome from his millions of followers-and around the world Iranian. students have been demonstrating their support for the Ayatollah.

    SYNOPSIS: In France some forty students took over the Iranian embassy in Paris on Tuesday (23 January), unnoticed by police standing guard outside. They burst into the consulate next door and then moved into the embassy itself. One of them said "the embassy staff welcomed us and helped us tear down portraits of the Shah".

    Most of the students later left the embassy, but a small group stayed behind and said that with the staff they would now take their orders from the Ayatollah.

    One of the first moves was to display a large portrait of the Ayatollah and proclaim the embassy as representing "The Islamic Republic of Iran". The students told newsmen the Shah's secret police, SAVAK, had left behind torn papers in their offices. As French police watched from outside, a bust of the Shah's father was thrown out of a window. Later Khomeiny representatives visited the embassy and are reported to have "made arrangements" with the staff.

    Also on Tuesday twelve Iranian students in Bombay, India, occupied the offices of their country's Consulate General. They stayed for twenty-four hours and are reported to have held five Iranians working in the building as hostages. Here police involvement in the proceedings was more in evidence - as the students stood on the roof and chanted anti-Bakhtiar and pro-Khomeiny slogans.

    According to Bombay newspaper reports the Iranian Consul - General was escorted away from his office shortly after the occupation began. These students also tore down portraits of the Shah and Empress Farah and daubed walls with pro-Khomeiny slogans. For a while the demonstrators defied the police, but later climbed down a fire brigade ladder and were searched before being driven away into custody in police vans.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS - SOURCE TO BE VERIFIED
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register