People around the world are worried about the Iranian climbing champion Elnas Rekabi.

The 33-year-old is said to be on her way back to her home country.

According to a report by the British BBC's Persian-language service, her passport and mobile phone are said to have been confiscated, while other reports also spoke of an arrest.

The Iranian embassy in Seoul categorically denied these allegations.

Rekabi and her team would fly back to Tehran as planned on Tuesday, it said.

The post from the Iranian embassy in Seoul, which was intended to have a calming effect, included a photo of the athlete - but this is more than a year old and comes from the World Climbing Championships in Moscow, which took place in September 2021.

Rekabi took off the headscarf that is mandatory for Iranian athletes in the final of the Asian Championships in Seoul.

This was seen as a sign of their solidarity with the women's movement in Iran and the protests against compulsory headscarves.

On Tuesday night, numerous Iranians flocked to the capital's airport in Tehran to celebrate Rekabi as the new heroine of the women's protests.

But the roads to the airport were sealed off at night, and the police only allowed people with a valid flight ticket to continue their journey.

This information has not yet been confirmed by the Iranian authorities.

It is unclear who wrote the post

In an Instagram story from an account attributed to Rekabi, the athlete apologized for not wearing a headscarf.

"Due to an inappropriate timing and an unforeseeable call to climb" she unintentionally did not wear the headscarf, it said.

"I am currently on my way to Iran with the team, according to the previously agreed timetable." It is unclear who wrote the post and whether it was written voluntarily.

Observers interpreted the apology as a forced statement.

The Iranian authorities regularly put pressure on activists at home and abroad, as was recently done with the singer Shervin Hajipour, who in the highly popular song "Baraye" (Farsi: For/Because of) reasons to protest against the rulers of the Islamic Republic had listed.

Observers expect Rekabis to be excluded from the national team and be banned from leaving the country.

Critics fear that Rekabi has been arrested and intimidated.

The International Sport Climbing Federation (IFSC) has meanwhile contacted the Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi.

"As far as we know, she is returning to Iran and we will continue to monitor how the situation develops after her arrival," the association said in a statement.

One is currently trying to "determine the facts". The safety of athletes is "first priority", the association supports "all efforts to protect a valued member of our community in this situation".

Since the nationwide protests erupted in Iran, several prominent athletes - including former soccer pros Ali Daei, Ali Karimi and Mehdi Mahdavikia - have criticized the system for the repression of women's protests and announced their solidarity with the demonstrators.

A number of athletes have announced that they no longer want to compete for the Islamic Republic of Iran under the given circumstances, most recently Arezou Izadi, the goalkeeper of the Iranian national ice hockey team.