These are the first images emerging from inside the charred ruins of Iran’s national volleyball stadium after a devastating missile strike.
The Azadi Indoor Stadium in Tehran looks completely destroyed in pictures emerging from the warzone on Thursday morning.
Unconfirmed reports from Iran’s state broadcaster said the 12,000-seat indoor arena was hit in US-Israeli airstrikes.
Video footage shows someone walking through the smoking ruins of the stadium that once hosted martial arts, volleyball and international basketball games in front of packed crowds.
The strike levelled changing rooms and a newly constructed building belonging to the cycling federation, while damaging windows in the complex’s swimming pool.
(Picture: ISNA)
It remains unclear if there were any deaths in the attack. The death toll since the US-Israeli assault began on Saturday has reached 1,045, Iranian state media reported.
Alireza Sohrabian, president of Iran’s Rowing Federation, condemned the attack as a breach of the Red Cross charter.
‘The destruction of sports, educational, and healthcare spaces is explicitly forbidden by the Red Cross in wartime, yet today we witnessed a direct attack on a sports venue at Azadi Stadium,’ he said.
The Israeli Air Force said in a statement: ‘Since the start of Operation “Lion’s Roar” the Air Force has struck hundreds of launch sites and rendered more than 300 ballistic missile launchers inoperable.
‘The Air Force completed, in the early morning hours (Thursday), the 113th wave of strikes against infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran.
‘In the strike wave, Air Force aircraft dropped numerous munitions on dozens of sites, from which launches were carried out toward Israeli territory in recent days.’
The venue was built between 1907-71 under the Shah regime and opened in 1974 just in time to host the seventh Asian Games.
The complex also holds Iran’s version of Wembley, a 120,000 seater stadium home to the national team.
It came after Donald Trump said he didn’t care if Iran participated in the summer’s World Cup.
Iran were one of the first nations to qualify for a tournament that is scheduled to start in less than 100 days’ time but their involvement is now under threat as a result of the US-Israeli strikes and subsequent retaliation as the regime clings to power.
In the wake of the initial wave of the attacks, Iranian Football Federation president Mehdi Taj confirmed Team Melli, who are due to play three games in America against Egypt, Belgium and New Zealand, were far from guaranteed to take their place at what promises to be the biggest World Cup in history.
Taj said: ‘With what happened today and with that attack by the United States, it is unlikely that we can look forward to the World Cup, but the sports chiefs are the ones who must decide on that.’
With a military campaign still ongoing, Trump was asked whether it would concern him were a nation of Iran’s stature to pull out.
He told Politico, the American digital newspaper: ‘I really don’t care. I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes.’
FIFA are continuing to monitor the situation after Iran were the only country absent from a planning summit for World Cup participants, held in Atalanta.