A man armed with grenades and guns and accompanied by his daughter took over a junior high school for several hours in central Tehran Monday, a media correspondent on the scene said.
Police initially said the man and a woman aged about 35 took over the school, but a boy released before the siege ended said a girl of about his own age — 13 — was with the man.
Pupil Milad Nazari Golheydari told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the man was with a girl who appeared to be his teenage daughter, and that he had four grenades on his belt and two guns.
He was one of about 30 pupils at Falagh Junior High School, aged between 11 and 13, who were released while the siege continued.
A police officer speaking under condition of anonymity said that the man had problems, and that he wanted “to talk to the government”.
Golheydari said the incident began at about 10am local time.
“The man gathered all of us in a room, shot three times at the ground, pointed a gun at our principal and then let some of us go,” he said.
The boy added that the man shouted that he had a problem with the judiciary, and that he was brandishing documents.
Golheydari said the man also shouted “I want to kill myself.”
The incident ended when the man and the girl agreed to come out with police, the AFP correspondent witnessed.
Upon coming out of the building, the man shouted: “I don’t care about my daughter and me dying.”
All of the pupils were released unharmed. — AFP