British tourists were warned that Iran is not safe “if you have blue eyes and blonde hair” after a couple on a motorbike tour were arrested by the Islamic regime.

Craig and Lindsay Foreman were detained by security forces in the central eastern city of Kerman last month as they travelled through the country on a round the world motorcycle tour.

Iranian state media, which disclosed the couple’s identities on Saturday, said they were being held on unspecified “security-related charges”.

However, Iranian government sources said the husband and wife were being used as political bargaining chips to secure concessions from the UK and that they would have been arrested just because they were British citizens.

Craig, a 51-year-old carpenter, and Lindsay, a 52-year-old psychologist, had been documenting their international tour on social media and had posted a YouTube video of themselves in the historic city of Yazd, a Unesco World Heritage Site, on Jan 3.