Protesters hurl petrol bombs at Danish mission in Iran

TEHRAN - Dozens of protesters pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with stones and petrol bombs on Tuesday after Danish television broadcast footage deemed insulting to the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, witnesses said.

Denmark's state TV aired footage on Friday of a number of members of the youth wing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) drawing cartoons in August mocking the Prophet. Iran condemned the broadcast.

Reuters witnesses said protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs into the embassy compound. The crowd chanted "Down with Zionists" and "God praise the party of God".

Riot police guarded the embassy and two fire trucks stood nearby. Firefighters extinguished a tire which was set alight next to the embassy compound wall, the witnesses said.

Denmark's ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday to complain about the video clips, which follow cartoons published in the Danish press last year that sparked outrage in the Islamic world.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has condemned those who made such insults as "low life".

In September last year Danish daily Jyllands-Posten printed cartoons, including one showing the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.

Those cartoons sparked protests across the Middle East, including Iran where protesters also pelted the embassy with stones and petrol bombs.

Some 232 lawmakers from Iran's 290-seat parliament urged Ahmadinejad on Tuesday to cut Iran's trade ties with Denmark over the latest footage, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

"The past attempts of the Danish government regarding this insult (to the Prophet) have been repeated, this time, by the visual media," Mehr reported.

"Since this is not tolerable, we call for cutting the economic ties to Denmark and if continued, cutting the political ties," the lawmakers said.

- REUTERS