Police fired tear gas to disperse angry demonstrators outside the Danish Embassy in Beirut on Sunday amid an outrage over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad which were first published by a Danish newspaper.

Hundreds of protesters staged a largely peaceful demonstration in front of the Danish Embassy, but the sit-in turned sour as some protesters attempted to break through the security barrier which prompted the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse them, witnesses said.

It was not clear now whether any casualties were caused.

The incident came against a backdrop of widespread protests in the Muslim world against newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

Danish daily Jyllands-Poste first published the 12 cartoons last September, including one showing the Islamic religion's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Over the past few days, the cartoons, which are considered blasphemous by most Muslims, were reprinted in some other European papers, which provoked an outrage in the Muslim world and a boycott of Danish products in most Muslim countries.

On Saturday, demonstrators stormed and torched the Danish and Norwegian Embassies in Damascus, Syria, in a protest against the publication of the cartoons.

Source: Xinhua