Today thousands of Lebanese protested in front of the Danish embassy in Beirut. Police fired tear gas to prevent the protesters from breaking a security barrier near the embassy. But the protesters were able to set fire to a building housing the Danish mission in Beirut.

Norway and Denmark have called for their citizens to leave Syria.

"The principle of diplomatic relations is that diplomats can work safely and the fact that this has been broken is extremely serious," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference in Oslo on Saturday.

"It's horrible and totally unacceptable," Denmark's Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told Danish public television.

Thousands of protesters scaled the Danish site in Damascus Saturday amid chants of "God is great," before moving on to attack the Norwegian mission.

The cartoons, one of which depicts Mohammed as a terrorist, sparked Muslim outrage across the world following their publication in a Danish paper in September. Any images of the prophet are banned under Islamic tradition.

The cartoons, which have been reprinted in newspapers in other European countries, have sparked threats of kidnapping against foreigners in the Palestinian territories and the boycott of Danish goods in parts of the Middle East.

Denmark has blamed Syria for the torching by protesters of its embassy in Damascus, echoing protests in other Western nations as tensions over Prophet Mohammed caricatures further escalate

Pictures:
Top: A protestor waves a green Islamic flag in front of the burning building housing the Danish mission in Beirut.

Middle:Protestors wave black and green Islamic flags in front of the burning building housing the Danish mission in Beirut, Lebanon

Lower: Protestors throw stones at riot police as others wave green and black Islamic flags during a protest against the publication of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers, in front of the building housing the Danish mission, in Beirut

Sources: Ya Libnan, UPI, AP