HAMBURG -- German police detained 50 people Tuesday after a group of Iranian opposition supporters vandalized the interior of the Iranian consulate building here and then rioted outside. Police said a group of about 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, AFP reported.
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.
Police said the group was protesting against a crackdown on the terrorist Mojahedin-Khalq Organization Iranian opposition in France and the treatment of anti-regime demonstrators in Teheran.
French anti-terrorist police on Tuesday launched a major crackdown on the leading Iranian armed MKO, the People's Mujahedeen, detaining 165 people in a series of dawn raids in the Paris region.
