At least six people have died as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad erupted in riots across the Islamic world.

Two people died in Mihtarlam, eastern Afghanistan, after police exchanged fire with mobs attacking a police station. At least two more protesters were killed in Bagram, the main US air base in the country, as a crowd of 2,000 began throwing knives and stones at officers.

In Bossaso, a port city in northern Somalia, a teenage boy was trampled to death in a stampede after paramilitary police fired into the air to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators.

Authorities in Lebanon today confirmed that a demonstrator had been killed leaping from the third-floor of the blazing Danish Embassy in Beirut last night. More than 300 protestors were arrested by police or army officers who used tear gas and batons to keep the crowd at bay.

The fatalities occurred as a wave of protest at the publication of cartoons depicting Muhammad in several European newspapers and a Jordanian tabloid showed no signs of diminishing. Thousands of Muslims, angered by what they consider blasphemous images of the Prophet, have congregated in cities from Indonesia to Gaza to vent their anger.

In London, Tony Blair condemned demonstrators who besieged the Danish Embassy at the weekend bearing placards threatening massacre and praising the actions of the July 7 bombers. One protester was dressed in the belt of a suicide bomber while a 20-month old baby wore a bonnet bearing the words "I love Al-Qaeda".

"Nothing can justify the violence aimed at European embassies or at the country of Denmark," Mr Blair said.

As Scotland Yard came under pressure to arrest those identified from video footage, Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the Muslim community would welcome their prosecutions.

"Most Muslims, of course, feel enormous distress and anguish at what has occurred. Those extremists who were inciting violence were trying to hijack genuine feelings amongst Muslims for a more violent agenda," he said.

Muslim anger at the publication of the cartoons has been most eagerly directed at Denmark, where they were first printed in the right-of-centre broadsheet Jyllands-Posten in September. Danish missions have been attacked and boycotts of Danish products launched in many Muslim countries.

The cartoons have since been reprinted by media outlets in Europe, the United States and elsewhere - sometimes to illustrate stories about the controversy or to support the concept of free speech.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. One of the drawings shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb. Another portrays him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle.

In Tehran today, about 200 people smashed the windows of the Austrian Embassy, hurling fireworks and smoke bombs inside. Austria appears to have been targeted because it holds the presidency of the European Union

In Surabay, Indonesia's second city, police fired warning shots at protestors outside the US Consulate. There were also noisy demonstrations outside the Danish Embassy in Jakarta.

Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at hundreds of students who took the streets in Delhi, the Indian capital. Shops and businesses across Indian-administered Kashmir closed after a general strike was called in protest at the drawings.

In Thailand, Denmark's flag was trampled by protestors outside its embassy in Bangkok.

The EU's offices in Gaza, briefly occupied by demonstrators last week, came under renewed assault today. "O Prophet Muhammad, we are ready to redeem you with our souls and our blood," the protestors chanted before being chased away by police wielding batons.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, school principals told their students to boycott Danish and Norwegian products. The boycott was meant as a compromise with students who had been eager to go out into the streets and join the protests.

In Malaysia, the editor of a newspaper that ran one of the offending drawings to accompany an article about the relative lack of impact of the controversy in his country was forced to resign. The Sunday Tribune, in the country’s remote Sarawak state, apologised for printing the picture.

In Iran, the biggest selling newspaper launched its own response to the controversy. "It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust," said Farid Mortazavi, the graphics editor for Hamshahri - offering 12 gold coins as prizes.

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