Hundreds of protestors threw stones at and then set fire to the Norwegian Embassy in Damascus on Saturday in a protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad which were published by a Norwegian magazine.

The protestors, who just stormed the nearby Danish Embassy building in downtown Damascus and set it on fire, marched on to the Norwegian Embassy and broke through police barriers and torched the building.

It was not immediately clear whether any casualties were caused in the fresh protest.

The Danish Embassy was closed on Saturday when the violent demonstration occurred and there has been so far no report of any casualties.

The cartoons that led to an outrage in the Muslim world were first published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September and republished in Norway last month and then in some other European newspapers.

One of the cartoons depicts the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

Damascus has recalled its ambassador from Denmark for consultation over the matter, the official SANA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in the week, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the cartoons as an offense to Muslims and Arabs and demanded the Danish government punish the offending paper.

The Danish ambassador to Syria met late Thursday with Syria's grand mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badr al-Dean Hassoun and conveyed Denmark 's apology for the offense caused by the cartoons.

SANA quoted the Danish ambassador as saying that the majority of the Danes were very sorry for this situation which the newspaper has put them into.

According to Islamic tradition, realistic depictions of prophets were prohibited and caricatures of them were considered profane.

Source: Xinhua