Los Angeles police detained a man Sunday after he drove a U-Haul box truck through a crowd of marchers on Veteran Avenue in the Westwood neighborhood, where demonstrators had gathered to show solidarity with protesters inside Iran, police said. One person was struck by the truck, but nobody was seriously hurt, according to a police statement. Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

LOS ANGELES — A man drove a U-Haul box truck through a crowd of marchers gathered Sunday on Veteran Avenue in Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood to express solidarity with protesters inside Iran, causing demonstrators to scatter and then chase the vehicle on foot, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

The incident unfolded in a city that is home to the largest Iranian diaspora community outside Iran itself, as activists reported more than 530 deaths from a government crackdown on nationwide protests inside the country.

Officers stopped the truck several blocks from the march. ABC7’s news helicopter showed police surrounding the vehicle while protesters swarmed it, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.

The driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” LAPD said in a statement Sunday evening. One person was struck by the truck but nobody was seriously hurt, police said. Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

A banner attached to the truck read: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The message appeared to reference the 1953 U.S.-backed coup that toppled Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The coup is widely linked to the conditions that produced the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in which Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established the theocracy that still governs Iran.

Protest context

A large crowd gathered Sunday afternoon on Veteran Avenue, many waving the pre-Islamic Revolution flag of Iran, to demonstrate against the Iranian government. Police eventually issued a dispersal order; by 5 p.m. about a hundred protesters remained in the area, ABC7 reported.

Demonstrators also filled streets in Tehran and Iran’s second-largest city Sunday, the Associated Press reported. Activists say a government crackdown on the nationwide protests has killed more than 530 people inside Iran.

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran, according to the Associated Press.