SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has closed its embassy in Tehran and evacuated diplomatic staff and their families to neighbouring Azerbaijan as the conflict between Iran and Israel intensifies, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told local media on Friday. 

Zhelyazkov said 12 people from the embassy and their families were evacuated after Israel advised residents to evacuate the third district of Tehran. 

"The Bulgarian embassy is in the immediate vicinity of this area and we decided to have our diplomats leave the country," he said, adding that the embassy would continue to operate from Baku. 

The staff drove six hours in a convoy to the border, where they waited another six hours because of border checks, he said.

(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov in Sofia, Angeliki Koutantou in Athens and Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Toby Chopra)