Two people have died after hundreds of Muslim protesters stormed a diplomatic complex in Islamabad today and thousands more firebombed Western restaurants in Lahore.

The demonstrations were Pakistan's most violent wave of unrest triggered by the republication of cartoons of Muhammad, and bring the worldwide death toll up to 14.

Police fired into the air and baton-charged demonstrators as they dispersed a rampaging crowd in Lahore. The protesters smashed windows and torched the Punjab provincial assembly building. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.

Barricades of burning tyres were set up to block off sections of the city, where most shops and markets closed in response to calls for an Islamist strike.

Western businesses in the historic city, near to the border with India, came under attack with windows broken at a Holiday Inn and outlets of Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald’s. The students also damaged over 200 cars, two banks and dozens of shops, and burned a large portrait of General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan.

Aftab Khan Sherpao, the Interior Minister, said that a security guard shot and killed two protesters trying to force their way into a bank. A doctor at the state-run Mayo Hospital said three other people were being treated for serious bullet injuries, and eight more had injuries from clashes with police.

The office of Telenor, a Norwegian mobile phone company, was looted and rioters were seen fleeing with computers and phones.

In Islamabad, the capital, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse around 1,000 students who besieged a barricaded compound of international embassies.

The students were driven out after reaching the Indian High Commission, which is next to the British High Commission. They smashed windows of cars and of British bank Standard Chartered, according to Reuters journalists at the scene.

The students shouted slogans including "Death to Denmark" and "Expel European ambassadors". Before entering the enclave, they tore down portraits of General Musharraf and Begum Khaleda Zia, the visiting Bangladeshi Prime Minister, shouting "Traitors, Traitors".

The diplomatic enclave is home to many European embassies as well as that of the United States, but not that of Denmark. It is fenced, barricaded and guarded by armed police.

An official for the British Embassy told Associated Press: "We heard there were some protesters who entered the diplomatic enclave and for security reasons we were advised not to leave the High Commission."

Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, a hardline leader of a six-party group of religious parties, said: "We have come to the doors of the embassies to take our voice to the ambassadors. There is anger in the Islamic world. If they do not listen, their problems will increase."

Protests against the satirical cartoons, first published in the right-wing Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September, have been held almost daily in Pakistan since they were reprinted in European newspapers in the last month.

Many Muslims believe that it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet, and the cartoons - one of which showed the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban - have sparked protests across the Muslim world.

Demonstrations in Pakistan, the world’s second most populous Muslim nation, have not been large by local standards, but Islamists have called for a nationwide strike on March 3.

Mr Sherpao, the Interior Minister, told the private Geo television channel that about 6,000 students had attended the protest in Islamabad before splitting into different groups, one of which headed for the diplomatic enclave. He said some of them had been arrested.

Speaking before news of the two fatalities was announced, Mr Sherpao said that security forces had been given instructions to protect vital installations and foreign assets. "But because the issue is sensitive, we don’t want to be very harsh," he said.

The deaths mean at least 14 people have since been killed protesting over the cartoons, mostly in Afghanistan, where ten people died last week as officers fired on angry crowds.

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