COPENHAGEN: Iran summoned the Danish ambassador on Friday to protest an incident at its embassy in Copenhagen in which its ambassador was threatened, Iran’s foreign ministry said in state media.
Danish police said they had arrested a 32-year old man earlier on Friday after he had entered the grounds of the embassy carrying a knife.
The man, an Iranian citizen, was stopped by an employee before entering the embassy building, the police said in a statement.
Iran’s foreign ministry said the ambassador, Afsaneh Nadipour, had been threatened, a local employee injured, and embassy vehicles damaged.
The man will have a court hearing on Saturday and will be charged with two counts of vandalism, for violence, and for breaching a section of the penal code that deals with crimes against people with diplomatic status, the Danish police said.
No further details on the attacker or motive were provided. Iran’s government has faced more than two weeks of protests at home and overseas over the death of a young women while in detention by the country’s morality police.
Iran state media earlier quoted Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying: “It is unfortunate that, in the heart of Europe, such an attack takes place on a woman and an ambassador who has diplomatic immunity, and the police do not arrive in time.”