AFP:

Tehran - Famous murals celebrating Iran's Islamic revolution daubed on walls of the former US embassy in Tehran have been erased to make way for new paintings to be unveiled on the fortieth anniversary of the hostage crisis.

Three workers were on Sunday afternoon seen removing the original artwork with a sandblaster against the wall of Taleqani avenue, bordering the south side of what was once dubbed a US "spy nest" in central Tehran.

On November 4, 1979, less than nine months after Iran's last shah was toppled, pro-revolution students took Americans hostage at the embassy to protest the ex-shah's admission to hospital in the US.

The crisis ended 444 days later with the release of 52 Americans, but the US broke off diplomatic relations in 1980 and ties have never been restored.

Among the images being erased was one of the Statue of Liberty -- with a skull instead of a face -- set against the red, white and blue of the American flag, colours that extend into barbed wire fencing shown to be imprisoning Iran.

Suffering a similar fate Sunday afternoon was a revolver in stars and stripes aligned against eight-pointed stars -- an iconic image often photographed with passers by in the frame, so as to seemingly threaten those depicted.

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