From the pages of the South China Morning Post this week in 1979
Muslim students seized the United States embassy in Tehran and claimed to be holding 100 hostages, most of them Americans.
They demanded that the deposed Shah, who was in a New York hospital, be extradited to Iran.
There were no reports of casualties in the takeover of the building, although witnesses said many of the attackers were heavily armed.
Revolutionary Guards at the embassy gates did not try to intervene during the attack, which coincided with tens of thousands of people marching through the streets of the Iranian capital on the first anniversary of the shooting of students by the Shah's security forces at Tehran University.
Western diplomats said the figure of about 100 hostages was probably correct and included women, as the embassy staff would have had little chance to escape when the crowds stormed the building. Iranians employed at the embassy were released and said the Americans were being held blindfolded in the basement.
