Eight men have been arrested after a group of protesters stormed the Azerbaijani embassy in London, Metro reports.

Footage on social media showed men waving flags from the balcony of the country’s base in Kensington.

Slogans in Arabic were daubed on the wall and the Azerbaijani flag was taken down.

It’s unclear what sparked the protest but it was led by a group called The Mahdi Servants Union.

It is a Shia Muslim organization based in London which says it wants to establish ‘civilizational dominance’ on its website.

Members linked to the group have cited ‘persecution’ by the Azerbaijani government of some Shia Muslims in the country.

In a statement, the group said it had been directed by their leader ‘to take urgent action’ against Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev.

Leader of the group Yasser Al-Habib, who was granted asylum in the UK after coming into conflict with the authorities in his native Kuwait, runs a mosque in Buckinghamshire.