Huge Jams On Tehran Streets As Residents Flee Israeli Attacks: Reports
Residents of Tehran have fled the Iranian capital in large numbers in the face of Israeli bombardments, creating immense traffic jams on the main road heading north, according to social media content posted on Monday.
Images verified by AFP, shot by a social media user from an overpass, showed near immobile traffic on a Tehran highway heading north with almost no vehicles in the opposite lane.
Israel on Friday launched a surprise aerial campaign targeting sites across Iran, saying the attacks aimed to prevent its archfoe from acquiring atomic weapons -- a charge Tehran denies.
The Israeli strikes have so far killed at least 224 people, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists but also civilians, according to Iranian authorities.
Iran launched strikes on Israel in retaliation which so far have killed 24 people, according to Israeli authorities.
Iranian authorities have closed civilian air space until further notice due to the Israel attacks, leaving land routes the only way out of Tehran which has been the main focus of Israeli attacks.
Israel has warned Iranians to stay away from any military infrastructure in a city where the security forces maintain a heavy presence, both overt and covert.
Videos filmed inside Iran and posted by Persian-language TV channels based abroad, such as Iran International and Manoto, as well as widely followed bloggers including Vahid Online, showed long queues of cars barely moving as they tried to leave Tehran.
The congestion appears to be concentrated on Highway 49 which connects Tehran with Chalus on the Caspian Sea in the Mazandaran province.
The region, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Tehran and typically a three-hour drive even in normal times due to the mountain roads, has so far been largely spared.
It is popular with Tehranis for its mild climate, with many maintaining holiday homes there.
Persian-language outlets meanwhile also posted images of hundreds of cars lining roads outside petrol stations in Tehran and its satellite city of Karaj, saying they were filling up ahead of long journeys outside of the city.
While air travel is impossible, Iranians can still in theory cross borders by land to go abroad.
Footage posted on social media, which has not been verified by AFP, showed hundreds queueing at the Bazargan crossing point in western Iran with Turkey close to the eastern Turkish city of Dogubayazit.
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