TEHRAN - Britain has evacuated all its diplomatic staff from Iran, Western
diplomatic sources told Reuters on Wednesday, a day after protesters stormed and
ransacked its embassy and a residential compound.

Britain said it was outraged by the attacks and warned of "serious
consequences". The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks "in the strongest
terms". US President Barack Obama called on Iran to hold those responsible to
account.

No comment was immediately available from the British government on the
reported withdrawal of embassy staff from Iran.

On Tuesday, Iranian protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds in
Tehran, smashing windows, torching a car and burning the British flag in protest
against new sanctions imposed by London.

The attacks occurred at a time of rising diplomatic tension between Iran and
Western nations, which last week imposed fresh sanctions over Tehran's nuclear
programme that they believe is aimed at achieving the capability of making an
atomic bomb.

Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, says it wants nuclear plants
only for the generation of electricity.

The embassy storming was also a sign of deepening political infighting within
Iran's ruling hardline elites, with the conservative-led parliament attempting
to force the hand of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and expel the British
ambassador.

"Radicals in Iran and in the West are always in favour of crisis ... Such
radical hardliners in Iran will use the crisis to unite people and also to blame
the crisis for the fading economy," said political analyst Hasan Sedghi.

Several dozen protesters broke away from a crowd of a few hundred outside the
main British embassy compound in Tehran, scaled the gates, broke the locks and
went inside.

Protesters pulled down the British flag, burned it and put up the Iranian
flag, Iranian news agencies and news pictures showed. Inside, the demonstrators
smashed windows of office and residential quarters and set a car ablaze, news
pictures showed.

One took a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth, state TV showed. Others carried
the royal crest out through the embassy gate as police stood by, pictures
carried by the semi-official Fars news agency showed.

All embassy personnel were accounted for, a British diplomat told Reuters in
Washington, saying Britain did not believe that any sensitive materials had been
seized.

Demonstrators waved flags symbolising martyrdom and held aloft portraits of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on matters of state
in Iran.

Another group of protesters broke into a second British compound at Qolhak in
north Tehran, the IRNA state news agency said. Once the embassy's summer
quarters, the sprawling, tree-lined compound is now used to house diplomatic
staff.

An Iranian report said six British embassy staff had been briefly held by the

protesters. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the situation had been
"confusing" and that he would not have called them "hostages".

"Police freed the six people working for the British embassy in Qolhak
garden," Iran's Fars news agency said.

A German school next to the Qolhak compound was also damaged, the German
government said.

BRITAIN OUTRAGED

Police appeared to have cleared the demonstrators in front of the main
embassy compound, but later clashed with protesters and fired tear gas to try to
disperse them, Fars said. Protesters nevertheless entered the compound a second
time, before once again leaving, it said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron chaired a meeting of the government
crisis committee to discuss the attacks, which he said were "outrageous and
indefensible".

"The failure of the Iranian government to defend British staff and property
was a disgrace," he said in a statement.

"The Iranian government must recognise that there will be serious
consequences for failing to protect our staff. We will consider what these
measures should be in the coming days."

The United States, alongside the European Union and many of its member states
also strongly condemned the attacks.

There have been regular protests outside the British embassy over the years
since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, but never
have any been so violent.

The attacks and hostage-taking were a reminder of the 1979 takeover of the
U.S. embassy in Tehran carried out by radical students who held 52 Americans
hostage for 444 days. The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran after the
hostage-taking.