Tehran Intelligence Police Chief, General Ali Valipour Goodarzi, said on Thursday that the four foreigners had entered Iran through legal channels, but were planning to continue their journey illegally to Europe through human smugglers.
However, the smugglers held them hostage in order to ask their families for ransoms.
General Goudazri said, “The police identified the hideout of the smugglers and the location of the kidnapped people in the vicinity of Tehran at 19:00 (local time, 15:30 GMT) on Wednesday, during a surprise operation.”
The security forces had to shoot and injure one of the kidnappers after he threatened to hurt the hostages with a knife, the police chief said.
He said the hostages were rescued unhurt, adding the five human smugglers of foreign nationals were arrested.
