The British and German embassies in Sudan have been attacked as thousands of enraged people across the Middle East and North Africa continue to protest against the anti-Muslim film made by an American right-wing Christian.
The embassies, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, have been surrounded by increasingly violent crowds despite the fact that neither Britain nor Germany have any link to the film.
Protesters tore down the German flag and replaced it with an Islamic banner reading "there is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet" before breaking windows and starting a fire next to the main gate.
Protesters in Yemen destroy an American flag
The Foreign Office have said that police are defending the British embassy, firing tear gas in an effort to disperse the demonstrations. Three people are reported to have been killed according to local media.
The US embassy has also been targeted:
- At least five people have been hurt by police gunfire as they tried to disperse violent crowds
- Protestors scaled the walls of the embassy compound and smashed windows
- Trees have been set alight within the compound causing a massive plume of thick black smoke
- Protesters have set fire to a US school in the capital
- Protesters chanted "Obama, Obama, we are all Osamas!"
Smoke rises from the US embassy in Tunis
Elsewhere, police in Yemen opened fire on protesters a day after the US embassy compound in the country was stormed by around 5,000 angry demonstrators.
Mohammed Albasha, Yemen's spokesman in Washington, had said on Thursday that the situation had been brought under control.
In Lebanon a man died after a fast food restaurant was burnt to the ground, whilst in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood called for a million-man march as protesters clashed with police guarding the US embassy.
A fifteen-foot high concrete wall had been erected to block the streets leading to the embassy. Aerial footage showed rocks being thrown back and forth between protesters and police.
Protestors near the US embassy in Egypt
The violence on Friday also spread to South Asia as around 10,000 people tried to march on the US embassy in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, burning American and Jewish flags as they went.
Smaller protests have occurred in Indonesia, Gaza and Iran.
The violence started in Egypt and quickly spread to Benghazi, Libya on Tuesday, September 11, when the US embassy was stormed and ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
The burnt out shell of the embassy where the US ambassador was killed
The significance of the date has led some to believe that Islamists are taking advantage over the furore over the film to carry out their own agendas.
The film, entitled Innocence of Muslims, is a crudely shot, low budget film which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a drunk, philanderer and a homosexual.
The American government has tried to distance itself from the film. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose to denigrate a great religion and provoke rage. But as we said yesterday, there is no justification — none at all — for responding to this video with violence.”
It's maker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has allegedly gone into hiding.
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