As smoke billowed into the sky, thousands of protesters, some carrying green Islamic flags, chanted “God is Greatest” while Muslim clerics, who had called for a peaceful rally, appealed for calm.

At least 30 people were injured, including policemen, firemen and protesters.

Denmark urged its 400 citizens in Lebanon to leave the country as soon as possible, saying that the situation was spiralling out of control.

On Saturday, mobs in neighbouring Syria set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies, damaged the Swedish Embassy and tried to storm the French Embassy but were fended off by riot police.

Denmark condemned Syria for failing to protect its embassy and Washington went further by accusing the Syrian authorities of supporting the violence.

Lebanese security forces appeared better prepared for trouble yesterday than their Syrian counterparts. Denmark had already evacuated its Beirut mission after the violence in Damascus.

Roads leading to the Danish consulate, in Beirut’s main Christian area of Ashrafiyeh, had been sealed off and 2,000 army troops and riot police were on hand.

But they were outnumbered by 20,000 protesters and there were chaotic scenes as the crowd advanced on the tenstorey building that also houses the Austrian Embassy and Slovak consulate. Some protesters attacked property and shops and overturned cars.

Security forces used teargas and water cannon in attempts to disperse the crowd and fired their weapons repeatedly into the air but gave way when protesters surged forwards.

Most of the demonstrators, bussed in from across Lebanon, were Sunni Muslims, and many were upset that the protest became violent. After some threw stones at a Christian Maronite church nearby, a group of Muslim clerics went to the church to apologise.

Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, condemned the use of violence. “This has nothing to do with Islam at all,” he said. “Destabilising security and vandalism give a wrong image of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad cannot be defended this way.”

Hassan Sabei, the Interior Minister, is understood to have tendered his resignation during an emergency Cabinet meeting last night, but it was not clear whether his offer was accepted.

The world’s leading Islamic body condemned the violence. “Over-reactions surpassing the limits of peaceful democratic acts . . . are dangerous and detrimental to the efforts to defend the legitimate case of the Muslim world,” the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, representing 57 nations, said.

In Jordan, two tabloid editors were arrested for printing the cartoons. Iran said that it was reviewing its trade ties with countries that have published the cartoons and declared it had withdrawn its ambassador from Denmark, saying that “freedoms should be accompanied by responsibility”.

In the Arab countries of the Gulf, the boycott against Danish goods intensified. Saudi supermarkets have signs proclaiming they do not stock Danish goods while rival product makers from other countries are placing advertisements in the Saudi press informing readers they do not use ingredients from Denmark.

Syria was subjected to a stinging rebuke from Denmark for Saturday’s violence.

“Syria failed in its duty. It is completely unacceptable that the embassy was not protected by the Syrians,” Per Stig Moller, the Danish Foreign Minister, said. Norway also criticised the “completely unacceptable” attack on its embassy.

But the harshest condemnation came from Washington, long at odds with Damascus. “We hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support,” Scott McClellan, the White House Press Secretary, said.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, called for calm and urged Muslims to accept the apology given by the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons.

In Turkey, an Italian Catholic priest was killed in an attack on the doorstep of his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. It was not clear if the attack was linked to the protests. Andrea Santaro, a 60-year-old priest at the Santa Maria church, was killed by a single bullet to the chest. Police were searching for a young man seen fleeing the scene.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, called for calm: “There can be no solution from the mouth of a gun.”

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