[Snipers deployed outside the Iranian Parliament during an armed attack, June 7, 2017 (Photo: Tasnim)]
Tehran: Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) and the Mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Khomeini in the capital Tehran have come under armed attack. Some media reports said upto seven people may have been killed in the attack.
At least four gunmen have reportedly intruded into the premises of the Majlis, opening fire on the security guards there.
According to Tasnim news agency, at least eight people have been injured in the shooting attack on Wednesday. Two people are said to have lost their lives in the firefight.
The assault has forced a lockdown on the legislature.
Tehran MP Elias Hazrati has said that the assailants were armed with two Kalashnikovs and a handgun, according to Press TV.
State owned Fars in a Twitter post said that three gunmen attacked the Khomeini Mausoleum in Tehran, opening fire on people inside and wounding a number of them.
An official at Khomeini's mausoleum in south Tehran said "three or four" people had entered via the western entrance and opened fire, killing the gardener and wounding several people, according to the Fars news agency.
News agencies ISNA and Fars had earlier said three people had been shot after the gunmen entered via the north entrance, including at least one security guard.
The ILNA news agency said security forces were dismantling a bomb inside the Khomeini shrine and that firing was still going on around the site.
It was not clear if the assailants had been able to enter the actual mausoleum.
The city was on lockdown, with streets blocked and the metro closed, and journalists kept away from the shrine by police.
Interior Minister Abdolrahman Fazli told ISNA he had convened a special meeting of the country's security council.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that attacks by ISIS in Europe and elsewhere showed that Western policies in the Middle East have backfired.
"This is a fire that (Western powers) themselves ignited and now has backfired on them," he told a gathering of senior officials in Tehran.
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