European leaders held emergency security meetings and scrambled to protect their citizens in the Middle East after US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday that triggered global concerns of escalation into a broader conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting in response to the US and Israeli strikes in Iran. Germany and the UK are holding their own emergency meetings on Saturday to discuss the situation. The European Union is evacuating some staff from the region, and European leaders are planning to coordinate further responses. The responses come after the US and Israel launched a major attack on targets across Iran, and US President Donald Trump called on the Iranian people to "take over your government" - an extraordinary appeal that suggested they could be seeking to end the country's theocracy after decades of tensions.