Demonstrators set fire to the Danish Embassy in Beirut on Sunday in a protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad which were first published by a Danish newspaper.

About 2,000 Lebanese staged a massive demonstration outside the Danish Embassy in Beirut and the initially peaceful sit-in turned sour as protestors attempted to break through the security barrier which prompted the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse them, witnesses said.

The angry protestors then torched the embassy, said witnesses, adding that a dozen people fainted due to the tear gas, several others were wounded in the clash with the police and a number of cars were set on fire.

It was not immediately clear whether any casualties in the Danish Embassy 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