Five players from Iran's women's Asian Cup side have escaped from their team handlers and are being protected by police in Queensland, while American president Donald Trump has weighed in on the situation.
"It was amazing, mate," Iranian Society of Queensland vice president Hadi Karimi told 9news.com.au on Monday night.
"I cried, this is amazing, amazing news."
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Trump said Australia was "making a terrible humanitarian mistake" if the women were "forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed".
Posting to Truth Social, Trump said he had spoken with prime minister Anthony Albanese and claims, "He's on it!".
Karimi could not say how the five women had managed to escape but it was hoped more of the players would be able to join them in the coming hours.
They are said to be in a safe house hunkering down.
The five who are being protected by police are Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi, Karimi said.
"[They] have left the team's training camp and successfully sought refuge in Australia," he said in a post on Instagram.
"These five courageous athletes, currently in a safe location, have announced that they have joined Iran's national Lion and Sun Revolution."
https://www.instagram.com/p/DVqccXtDX9D/?utm_source=ig_embed&
Karimi said a group of volunteers would remain at the hotel throughout the night ready to help if any other of the players managed to leave.
Fellow human rights activist Minoo Ghamari also posted confirmation of the escape.
"Five of the girls from the women's football team in Australia have separated from the team and are now under police protection," she wrote in a post translated from Persian to English.
"The rest of the girls are aware of their rights and know that if they want help, the government will assist them.
"Thanks to everyone who worked hard; this is the power of the Iranian community."
Earlier on Monday afternoon, the footballers remained holed up in their Gold Coast hotel amid concerns for their welfare.
The team had been expected to travel to the airport to head home, but that had not happened.
9News Queensland reporter Pat Heagney said some of the team had been spotted on the balcony of the Gold Coast hotel with security beefed up at the location.
Earlier on Monday, the chief of Australia's soccer players association expressed concern for the welfare of women after protesters claimed at least one of the players made "a sign for help" as the team bus left Gold Coast Stadium on Sunday night after their Asian Cup campaign ended.
More than 50,000 people signed a petition urging the Australian government to step in and help protect the players.
After losing 2-0 to the Philippines on Sunday, the Iran team bus was surrounded by hundreds of protesters who wanted the vehicle to be stopped and for the players to be provided security by police.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a source in the Iranian-Australian community planned to ask the Australian Federal Police to intervene, seeking urgent protection for the women.
Professional Footballers Australia boss Beau Busch said efforts to speak to Iranian players had been in vain.
"The reality at the moment is that we're unable to get in touch with the players," Busch told the newspaper.
"That's incredibly concerning, that's not a new thing, that's really been since the repression really dialled up in this – sort of February, January etc.
"So we're really concerned about the players, but our responsibility right now is to do everything within our power to try and make sure that they're safe."
Busch added that it was a priority to ensure "pressure is applied to make sure that the players are safe, that they have some agency around what happens next, whether they're able to stay here in Australia or if they do want to return, how we do that safely, and then obviously ensuring that they're incredibly safe when they get back to Iran".
Busch's comments followed several protestors who on Sunday night spoke to media and claimed they saw at least one player make a sign with her hand that means "help".
"The help sign is, I think, the most concerning,'' Ara Rasuli told News Corp.
Another protester visited the police station on the Gold Coast to urge the local authorities to act.
"We have seen videos of them showing this sign, requesting help. We need the police to have a safe conversation with these girls, tell them what rights they have," one told news cameras.
"If they want to stay here we must help them."
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong at the weekend would not promise government help for the players.
"It has been really moving for Australians to see them in Australia and the Matildas swapping jerseys with them was, I think, a very evocative moment," Wong said.
"It spoke to solidarity and the way in which sport can bring us together.
"We know this regime has brutally murdered many of its own people. We know this regime has brutally oppressed many Iranian women and we stand in solidarity with the men and women of Iran and particularly Iranian women and girls.
"I don't want to get into commentary about the Iranian women's team."
The Iran women's team was threatened last week after refusing to sing the national anthem before an Asian Cup game.
The spectre of war has hung heavy over the Iran team since the Middle East nation was bombed by America and Israel, before launching retaliatory strikes last week.
The attack came as the women's football team was flying Down Under to compete at the tournament.
Players have avoided speaking about it in the days since, for fear of retribution from the Islamic regime. Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes but the conflict remains ongoing.
"Our concern is they will get on a plane straight after the game tonight," Zaki Haidari from Amnesty International said on Sunday.
"What Australia can do and should do is provide them protection at the airport before they leave the country."
On Thursday night Iran's women's team took a slightly different approach, saluting while the anthem played. Some players sang.
On Sunday night the players sang, although protesters claim they only did so under threat of violence.
On Friday morning, Iranian state TV presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi issued a threat to the players.
"Let me just say one thing: traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely," Shahbazi said, according to social media platform X's translation.
"Anyone who takes a step against the country under war conditions must be dealt with more severely.
"This is no longer just a symbolic protest move or the like. In a war situation, in this state of affairs, where they strike and martyr students and seven-to-eight-year-old girls in schools, where they attack the neonatal ward of a hospital, where they hit stadiums.
"For you to go there and not sing the national anthem; this is the pinnacle of dishonour and lack of patriotism. Both the people and the officials should treat these individuals as wartime traitors, not as if they just had a protest or performed a symbolic act.
"The stigma of dishonour and betrayal must remain on their foreheads, and separately they must be dealt with properly."
The message is a chilling threat given treason can be punishable by death in Iran.
Australia's assistant foreign affairs minister, Matt Thistlethwaite, said: "Any sporting team or member of a sporting team gets no preferential treatment."
However Haidari said: "We can't compare the current Iranian situation to other asylum process."
Outside the Gold Coast stadium on Thursday night, groups of protesters praised America and Israel for killing Khamenei, celebrating the supreme leader's death.
As the war escalates and the clock runs out for the Iranian team's time here, Australians are facing their own rush to get out of the Middle East..
About 11,000 citizens in the region have told the government they want to come home.
Now 1700 have returned on flights from the United Arab Emirates and 68 boarded flights out of Qatar to Europe when that airspace started reopening on Saturday.
Another 92 took government buses from the Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
Those in the Saudi city of Riyadh are being given two nights free accommodation – as they try to find a flight out.
– with Kieran Campbell.
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