Denmark consulate in Beirut set ablaze in cartoon protest
More than 20 thousand protestors belonging to a new "National Movement for the Defence of the Prophet Mohammed", set alight the building, smashing shop windows and throwing stones to a church. The example of Syria.
Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) - - Furious crowds on Sunday stormed and set alight the building housing the Danish consulate in Beirut, in protests against the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that left almost thirty wounded. Lebanese security forces had fired tear gas at a crowd of about 20,000 as they marched towards the Danish consulate.
Demonstrators used ladders to enter the building while others hacked at its walls and windows with axes and poles. Some protestors climbed aboard fire engines and sprayed their water hoses, leaving the streets soaked.
What happened in Beirut is a vivid repeat of yesterday's riots in Syria. On Saturday furious Syrians had set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. They also damaged the Swedish embassy and tried to storm the French mission but were held off by riot police.
After the protest in Syria, Danish diplomats in Lebanon had Saturday night evacuated the consulate building, which also holds the Austrian consulate and a bank.
Anti-riot police with shields, gas masks and helmets took to the streets in a bid to quell the protests. Turbaned clerics pleaded with demonstrators to stop the violence. The red and white flag of Denmark was set alight.
"This is the fate of all those who turn against Islam and our prophet. They will be burned by the fires of hell," said one young demonstrator, his head wrapped in a green headband. Many of them turned out in response to a call by a group called the "National Movement for the Defense of the Prophet Mohammed."
The protestors also attacked property and shops in the district, the Christian area of Ashrafiyeh, throwing stones, breaking windows and overturning cars. Stones were thrown at a church.
Twenty-eight people were wounded in the clashes, some were treated for inhaling teargas and others had sustained fractures, a civil defence medic said. The Danish government called on its nationals to leave Lebanon, saying they "should remain indoors until the travel possibilities have been clarified.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora condemned the violence and accused groups "seeking to spread disorder" of being responsible. "The security forces will not give in and demand that the protestors disperse rapidly," he said.
"These protestors are in the process of wronging Islam. Those responsible may have been influenced by what happened on Saturday in Damascus," he said.
Mohammad Rashid Qabani, Lebanon's top Sunni Muslim cleric, urged restraint. "We don't want the expression of our condemnation [of the cartoons] to be used by some to portray a distorted image of Islam," he said. "Today is a big test for us. Let our expression of condemnation be according to the values of Islam."
Denmark on Sunday roundly blamed Syrian security forces for failing to prevent the violence at its embassy in Damascus. "Syria failed in its duty. It is completely unacceptable that the embassy was not protected by the Syrians," Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said in a written statement.
"We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement.
The European Union condemned the attacks in Damascus, as well as at its offices in the Palestinian territories, as "utterly unacceptable".
Norway also criticized the Syrian government for the Syrian embassy attack, with Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere calling it "completely unacceptable".
Gahr Stoere said his Syrian counterpart, Faruq al-Shara, had apologised.
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