TEHRAN, Iran—An assailant stabbed three clerics at a Shiite site in Iran on Tuesday, according to Iranian state-run media, killing one and injuring two before he was arrested. The motive for the attack remained unclear.
One cleric died almost instantly after being stabbed at the Imam Reza shrine in Iran’s northeast city of Mashhad. Two others were hospitalized, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Mashhad prosecutor Mohammad Hossein Darroudi described the assailant as a foreign national, without elaborating. He said four other suspects were arrested in connection with the case.
State media identified the cleric who was killed as Mohammad Aslani. It did not provide information about the conditions of the other victims.
In a video from the scene that was shared on social media, two men could be seen splayed on the shrine’s gray marbled floor covered with blood. IRNA news agency posted a video of police arresting the assailant.
The stabbings on Tuesday followed a separate attack targeting clerics earlier this week. On Sunday, two Sunni clerics were shot to death in a mosque in the northern town of Gonbad Kavus. Authorities did not offer a motive for that incident, either.
