A bench of Justice Prashant Kumar said, “Such actions cannot be excused as mere expressions of opinion, but must be recognised for what they are: deliberate acts of religious vilification…as a deliberate attempt to insult and hurt the sentiments of a particular community.”

Visuals from the scene show thick black smoke emitting from the mall as fire authorities attempt to douse the fire

French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris Friday and were preparing to enter it at the mission’s request, after a report someone had come in with an explosive, a security source said.

“A witness saw a man enter carrying a grenade or an explosive belt,” the source said, adding that an elite police unit had been mobilised after the consulate requested an intervention.

An AFP journalist said the whole neighbourhood around the consulate in the capital’s 16th district had been closed off and a heavy police presence was in place.

Paris transport company RATP on X, formerly Twitter, said traffic had been suspended on two metro lines that transit through stops close to the consulate.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)