Lebanon's interior minister has resigned after thousands of angry Muslim protesters yesterday torched the Danish consulate in Beirut and damaged property in a Christian area in riots over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
The protesters, waving green Islamic flags and chanting "God is greatest", fuelled sectarian tension when they stoned a church, provoking an angry Christian outcry in a country that has not fully recovered from its 1975-1990 civil war.
Interior minister Hassan al- Sabaa, a Sunni Muslim retired officer loyal to the country's anti-Syrian majority coalition, submitted his resignation at an emergency cabinet meeting. "We had two solutions: either to try to keep people away [ from the consulate] as we did, or to use weapons against them," he told reporters. "I am a person who would never order the use of arms against the Lebanese."
About 20,000 protesters marched on the consulate, some carrying banners which read: "Whoever insults the Prophet Mohammad is to be killed", and throwing stones at security forces, who fired tear-gas and used water cannon to disperse the crowd.
One demonstrator, among those who set the consulate building on fire, was encircled by flames and died after jumping from the third floor, a senior security official said.
The protesters attacked three fire engines to stop them from extinguishing the blaze and hung up a banner at the building's entrance reading: "We are ready to sacrifice our children for you, O Prophet Mohammad." Protesters also burned two civil defence vehicles, a police car and an army jeep.
Security forces arrested 174 protesters - 76 Syrians, 38 Lebanese, 35 Palestinians and 25 stateless Bedouins.
The Danish mission's staff left Lebanon on Saturday because they were expecting the protest, a senior security official said. The building also houses the Austrian consulate. Denmark's foreign ministry yesterday urged all Danes to leave Lebanon and warned its citizens not to travel there.
Several Sunni Muslim clerics were on the streets urging restraint and asking protesters, who came from across the country, to leave.
Some protesters stoned a Christian Maronite church nearby and a group of Muslim clerics went to the church to apologise, witnesses said.
President Emile Lahoud joined scores of Christian officials in deploring the attack on the church. Scores of Christians also burned tyres and briefly blocked the highway linking Beirut to the Muslim-dominated Bekaa Valley.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told a private television station: "This has nothing to do with Islam at all. Destabilising security and vandalism gives a wrong image of Islam. The Prophet Mohammad cannot be defended this way."
Meanwhile in Turkey yesterday, an Italian Catholic priest was shot dead in his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, triggering condemnation from Turkey's government and pledges to track down the killer.
"The priest was shot dead at his church this afternoon but we have no more details at present. An investigation has begun," a police spokesman said.
The state Anatolian news agency identified the dead man as Fr Andrea Santaro (60).
On Saturday, Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, damaged the Swedish embassy and tried to storm the French mission, but were held off by riot police. The Nordic countries and the United States have condemned Syria for failing to protect the embassies.
Security at France's embassies in Syria and Lebanon was strengthened; a French newspaper was among those to print the cartoons.