An Israeli missile has hit Iran, US officials have told the BBC's partner station CBS News.
Blasts were heard in the central province of Isfahan, although it is not clear what was targeted.
Iran is on high alert after Israel said it would respond to an Iranian attack against it on Saturday night.
Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles in its first ever direct attack on Israel, bringing a years-long shadow war between them into the open.
Iranian media have not reported any direct impacts from Friday's Israeli strike and the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said no nuclear sites were damaged.
There has been no official Israeli comment.
Iran's nuclear sites are a particular focus of attention because Israel and Western powers have for years suspected Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, with Israel vowing to stop it by any means. Iran says its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes.
Isfahan province is home to several nuclear facilities, a large airbase and a major missile production complex.
"[The reported attack] was fairly near to where we believe Iran is building nuclear weapons, so I expect it was a nod to them," Hamish De Bretton Gordon, a former commander of UK and Nato nuclear forces, told BBC News.
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), said explosions were heard near Isfahan International Airport and an army base in Isfahan city, activating local air defence systems.
Video from Isfahan posted on BBC Persian's Instagram account shows orange flashes in the night sky and the sound of what appears to be bursts of anti-aircraft fire.
BBC correspondents say the scale of the strike appears to be limited, suggesting it was aimed more at sending the Iranian regime a message - that Israeli weapons can reach deep inside Iran - than it was at inflicting damage.
Iran's relatively muted response, with some officials even denying an attack took place at all, indicates that for Iran it is partly about saving face and looking strong.
Friday's strike comes six days after Iran launched its unprecedented attack in retaliation for an Israeli air strike on Iran's consulate building in Syria on 1 April, which killed two top generals. The most senior of the two, Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was reportedly in charge of Iranian military operations in Syria and Lebanon, where pro-Iranian forces have launched attacks on Israel.
Almost all the Iranian drones and cruise and ballistic missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defences with support from the US, UK and other allies, the Israeli military said.
Several ballistic missiles hit an airbase in the Negev desert. A young Bedouin girl, who was seriously hurt by falling shrapnel, was the only reported injury.
Iran signalled afterwards that it did not seek further escalation.
In recent days, Iranian leaders had warned that any Israeli attack on Iran would trigger a swift response. Hours after Friday's attack though an unnamed Iranian official told Reuters news agency it might not have been carried out by a "foreign" source and that there were no plans to retaliate.
Russia says it has made clear to Israel that Iran does not want escalation, while foreign ministers from the G7 group of the world's largest industrial nations said they would work towards restoring calm.
Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani told journalists at the G7 summit in Capri that the US had been informed about the attack "at the very last minute", adding there had been no involvement by the US.
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Police are at the scene of the Iranian consulate in Paris where a man is threatening to blow himself up with a suicide vest, according to local reports.
The individual is currently holed up inside the building in the French capital's 16th arrondissement in a room with the ambassador, one report said.
He is understood to be wearing an explosive belt and is also said to be equipped with an object that resembles a grenade, according to Europe 1.
The area has been cordoned off and the public evacuated, with a police source saying that an 'intervention was imminent' - suggesting officers were preparing to storm the building.
'A witness saw a man enter carrying a grenade or an explosive belt,' the source told France's AFP news agency, adding that an elite police unit had been mobilised after the consulate requested an intervention.
'The man presented him at the consulate, and then removed his coat, to show off an alleged explosives vest,' another security source said at the scene.
'He said he was carrying a grenade, and then placed a national flag on the floor. He said he wanted to avenge his brother.'
Police ordered the city's Metro Line 6 to be interrupted as a safety measure.
Officers from France's special BRI armed police unit are on the scene.
Europe 1 reported that the embassy contacted the police requesting assistance, reporting that the man was inside the building.
It said he was holed up in a room inside the consulate 'in the presence of the ambassador', the outlet reported.
This was in response to Iran launching over 300 missiles towards Israel on Saturday, 99 percent of which were intercepted by Israel and its allies.
Iran's weekend attack was in-turn believed to have been in response to an April 1 suspected Israeli air strike which levelled Tehran's consular annex in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards members, including two generals.
The tit-for-tat attacks have ramped up tensions in the volatile region, increasing fears that the Middle East could descend into a full-blown conflict.
It was not clear whether the incident in Paris was related to the on-going crisis.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, addressed the press today at the conclusion of the G7 meeting of foreign ministers in Capri, Italy.
On behalf of the G7, he condemned Iran’s cruise missile and drone attack on Israel that prompted an airstrike today on Isfahan, that the US says it has confirmed was carried out by Israel. It hasn not yet been confirmed by Israel or Iran.
“We’re committed to Israel’s security,” Blinken said. “We’re also committed to de-escalating.”
He noted that despite the tensions with Israel and Iran, “we remain intensely focused on Gaza”.
German airline group Lufthansa has suspended flights to Israel and Iraq until early Saturday.
Services by airlines of the group to Tel Aviv in Israel and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan were suspended until 5am GMT due to the “current situation”, a spokesperson told AFP.
Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines also decided as a “precautionary measure” to suspend flights to Jordan’s capital Amman, as well as Erbil and Tel Aviv on Friday “to comprehensively reassess the security situation”.
“Austrian Airlines continuously monitors and assesses the security situation in the Middle East and is in close contact with the authorities,” Austrian Airlines said in a statement sent to AFP.
Both Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines had already suspended their flights to and from Tehran up until the end of the month.
Polish national airline LOT canceled flights on Friday to Tel Aviv and Beirut due to the unstable situation in the region, a spokesperson was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.
“Today’s flight 151/152 to Israel from Warsaw and to Beirut 143/144 have been cancelled,” Krzysztof Moczulski told PAP, according to a Reuters report. Moczulski said decisions about future flights would be made on an ongoing basis.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken repeatedly declined to confirm a reported Israeli attack on Iran on Friday, saying Washington has not been involved in any offensive operations and it was committed to de-escalating tensions in the region, reports Reuters.
“I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations,” Blinken said at a news conference capping a gathering of G7 foreign ministers on the southern Italian island of Capri.
According to Reuters reporters, the top US diplomat kept repeating the same response, almost verbatim, when he was asked about the issue several times at the news conference.
At a separate news conference moments before Blinken, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said the US was “informed at the last minute” but did not elaborate (see 11:58 BST).
Explosions echoed over the Iranian city of Isfahan in the early hours of Friday in what sources described as an Israeli attack, say Reuters, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.
Israel said nothing about the incident. It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for Saturday’s strikes, the first direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies which has escalated throughout the Middle East.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres said on Friday that “it is high time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
Iran has been trying to reassure people that the country did not face a major threat after airstrikes were carried out in the Isfahan province on Friday.
A news anchor said everything was “back to normal” in a report aired on Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster’s English-language outlet.
In another clip, said to be filmed in Isfahan and published by Iranian media, an unidentified person is heard saying there had been no damage to the area.
Officials in Washington said Israeli forces were carrying out military operations against Iran but did not describe the character or scale of those operations. Israel and Iran are yet to confirm the source of the strikes.
Israel’s “aggression” on Iran is an escalation against the region, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Friday.
“We call for expanding the scale of the engagement against the [Israeli] occupation in response to the war of genocide in Gaza and the escalation in the region,” said Abu Zuhri.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, declined to comment on whether the US had any warning of Israel’s plans to strike Iran this morning, but said: “The United States has not been involved in any offensive operations.”
Blinken restated the G7’s commitment to de-escalating tensions in the region.
“What the G7 is focused on, and it’s reflected in our statement and in our conversation, is our work to de-escalate tensions, to de-escalate from any potential conflict,” he said. “You saw Israel on the receiving end of an unprecedented attack, but our focus has been on, of course, making sure that Israel can effectively defend itself, but also de-escalating tensions and avoiding conflict. That remains our focus.”
The G7 meeting of foreign ministers had discussed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, said Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, but Hamas “continues to move the goalposts”.
“The only thing standing between the Gazan people and a ceasefire is Hamas,” Blinken said. “It has rejected generous proposals from Israel. It seems more interested in a regional conflict than it is in a ceasefire that would immediately improve the lives of the Palestinian people. It continues to move the goalposts.”
The G7 also urges “the rapid implementation of Israel’s humanitarian assistance commitments” in Gaza, Blinken said.
“We have seen important steps over the last couple of weeks with more crossings opening, more aid getting in, more aid getting around,” Blinken said. “But we need to see sustained results and we need to see, in particular, distribution throughout Gaza.”
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, addressed the press today at the conclusion of the G7 meeting of foreign ministers in Capri, Italy.
On behalf of the G7, he condemned Iran’s cruise missile and drone attack on Israel that prompted an airstrike today on Isfahan, that the US says it has confirmed was carried out by Israel. It hasn not yet been confirmed by Israel or Iran.
“We’re committed to Israel’s security,” Blinken said. “We’re also committed to de-escalating.”
He noted that despite the tensions with Israel and Iran, “we remain intensely focused on Gaza”.
Below is some footage of the airstrikes in Iran’s Isfahan province. Although the US said on Friday that strikes were carried out by Israel, it has not yet been confirmed by Israel or Iran:
Here are a few images on the newswires from Italy where G7 foreign ministers met today:
The US told the G7 foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Foreign minister Antonio Tajani said the US provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the suspected attack.
Tajani said the US informed the G7 ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones. “But there was no sharing of the attack by the US. It was a mere information.”
He said Italians living in Iran were all accounted for and “without problems.”
Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi said on Friday that Israeli-Iranian retaliations must end, warning against the danger of regional escalation.
According to Reuters, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry on Friday also expressed concern about regional tensions. In a statement, the ministry called for “utmost restraint” to avoid serious repercussions.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz called for de-escalation after a strike on the Iranian city of Isfahan and said Berlin would work with its partners in this direction, reports the Reuters news agency
“De-escalation remains the order of the day in the near future. And we will also talk about this with all our friends and allies, and work together with them in this direction,” Scholz told reporters on Friday.
The Jerusalem Post reports its sources have confirmed that Iranian air force assets in Isfahan “almost right next door to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear site in the same area” were hit during blasts that the US attributed to Israel.
“The message was unmistakable, ‘we chose not to hit your nuclear sites this time, but we could have done worse right here,’ sources toldthe Post.”
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By Madeline Halpert & Kayla Epstein
BBC News, in court
Jury selection in Donald Trump's historic criminal trial is in its final stage - raising hopes that opening statements could be made on Monday.
A full 12-person panel has been sworn in, and six alternate jurors are being sought to act as reserves if needed.
Mr Trump is accused of falsifying business records in the first criminal trial of an ex-president. He denies it.
Finding an impartial jury in New York, where Mr Trump built a business empire, had been expected to take weeks.
But things moved quickly after Mr Trump's team ran out of the permitted number of objections.
"We have our jury," Justice Juan Merchan declared on Thursday after seven men and five women were selected. Two jurors had to be excused earlier.
The trial stems from a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Stormy Daniels was given $130,000 (£105,000) before the 2016 election to buy her silence about an affair she claims she had with Mr Trump - an affair that Mr Trump denies having.
The payment itself was not illegal, but Mr Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. He has pleaded not guilty.
As Mr Trump left court on Thursday evening, he showed dozens of printed media articles criticising the charges, which he said were "political".
"It's a very unfair, very bad thing," said the Republican, who will challenge President Joe Biden, a Democrat, for the White House in November's election.
"The whole world is watching this hoax." He also took issue with the temperature in the courtroom, saying it is "freezing in there".
The day's jury-selection session faced an initial setback after Justice Merchan dismissed two members of the panel who had been seated this week.
The judge announced that Juror #2 had realised she could no longer be impartial after friends and family gleaned from media reports that she had been chosen for the panel. They began to bombard her with messages, she said.
"I don't believe at this point that I can be fair and unbiased," she said, as it might be difficult not to let outside opinions affect her decision in the courtroom.
Justice Merchan swiftly excused her, and subsequently limited the information reporters could use for descriptions of jurors to make them less identifiable.
"We just lost what probably would've been a very good juror for this case," he said.
She was not the only one to be dismissed.
Justice Merchan said that after conducting some research, lawyers for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office discovered that Juror #4 may have lied about having no criminal history.
The judge said it appeared he had been arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements, while his wife may have been involved in a corruption case investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
After a long and private discussion with the legal teams and Justice Merchan, this juror was excused.
Jeremy Saland, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office who now practises criminal defence, told the BBC it is "very uncommon" for jurors to be seated then dismissed less than 48 hours later.
Anna Cominsky, a professor at the New York Law School, said that the day's dynamics showed this was no typical criminal case, and the public pressure on those involved would be unprecedented.
"The real issue here is not keeping the jurors' or potential jurors' identifying information for the parties," she said. "It's keeping that from the public. That's the difference."
The hunt for impartial and willing jurors continued in the afternoon. A new batch of 96 potential jurors was brought into the courtroom.
By the end of the day, seven of them would be sworn in as jurors before the judge. An additional juror was sworn in as an alternate, and the process of finding five more standbys will continue on Friday.
Getty Images
It took a great deal of winnowing to get there.
As was the case in the opening stages of jury selection, Justice Merchan first made a sweeping dismissal of dozens of jurors, who said they could not judge Mr Trump impartially.
One prospective juror, who was born and raised in Italy, was excused after he said he associated Mr Trump with Italy's former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr Trump watched from the sidelines with his arms crossed as his legal team grilled the panel about whether they had strong feelings about him.
"I disagree with most of his policies," one said.
"I don't like his persona," another prospective juror said.
A third - a Brooklyn native - admitted she also "had opinions" on Mr Trump.
"I spent my whole life knowing about Donald Trump," she said, adding that she once saw him and his ex-wife Marla Maples shopping for baby items.
But most - including some with "neutral views" on the former president - insisted that their thoughts on him as a politician would not sway their assessment of him in court.
The defence team raised concerns about old social media posts from one prospective juror, in which she called Trump a "racist, sexist, narcissist".
Justice Merchan forced her to read the post aloud to the court. "Oops, that sounds bad," she said, when coming across the word racist.
"I was in a disturbed frame of mind in that election cycle," she said. "I do not hold those positions today."
Ultimately, Justice Merchan said it was not worth "taking the chance" with the juror, and she was dismissed.
Another juror was excused when a surprise personal connection to the case came to light.
A woman said she met one of Mr Trump's lawyers, Susan Necheles, 15 years ago.
"She stayed at my house overnight," Ms Necheles told the court.
Under questioning, the prospective juror confirmed she stayed there once.
This live coverage has ended. For the latest updates, please go here.
Multiple flights over Iranian airspace were diverted early Friday, according to flight tracking website Flight Radar 24, as Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported explosions heard over the province of Isfahan. Tensions in the region are high following Iran’s unprecedented assault on Israel — itself in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria earlier this month.
