Pakistan envoy to Iran 'attacked by Afghan' in Tehran

The ambassador reportedly got into a confrontation as he went to a gym

Pakistan's ambassador to Iran has been injured in an attack by an Afghan on his car in Tehran, officials say.

The suspect was arrested, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman quoted by state-run al-Alam TV said.

Mohammad Bakhsh Abbasi was taken to hospital after the incident in the Iranian capital, although he was not reported to have been seriously hurt.

The envoy was travelling without bodyguards or a driver, the foreign ministry spokesman said.

An earlier report from Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV said two bodyguards had been killed.

"The Pakistan ambassador's car has been attacked by an Afghan," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying.

"The ambassador has been injured and he is in hospital. The Afghan has been arrested."

A Tehran police chief reportedly said the ambassador had got into a confrontation as he went to a leisure centre he frequents.

"He had a clash with a 21-year-old Afghan; he was injured on the head and fell," police chief Hossein Sajedi-Nia told Iran's Isna news agency.