(4 Feb 2006)
1. Various of crowd protesting outside Danish embassy
2. Danish Embassy building with stones being thrown at it
3. Security at scene
4. Embassy building on fire, pan left to embassy staff leaving
5. Fire and smoke from building, pan to street
6. Close-up of signs reading: "Embassy of Denmark", "Embassy of Sweden", pan to crowd, pan to debris
7. Wide tilt down of crowd in street
8. Danish Embassy employees in embassy packing up belongings (nationality unconfirmed)
9. Close-up on broken items in embassy, tilt up smashed window
10. Close-up on broken sign showing Danish crest and reading: "Embassy of Sweden", zoom out to fire, pan to security
11. Wide of fire crew putting out blaze
12. Protesters in street
++NIGHT SHOTS++
13. Various of demonstrators outside Norwegian embassy shouting "allahu Akbar," or God is great
14. Various of demonstrators inside building setting fire and chanting slogans
15. Various of demonstrators storming the building
16. Various of protesters destroying furniture
17. Wide exterior of burning building
18. More of burning building, pan to protesters street
19. Protesters destroying balustrade outside building, shouting "allahu Akbar"
20. Zoom-in of fire outside building
21. Damaged car turned upside down, pan to fire
22. Protesters jumping on Norwegian embassy sign shouting "allahu Akbar"
23. Medical staff arriving at scene
24. Protesters holding banners outside embassy, shouting "allahu Akbar"
STORYLINE:
Thousands of outraged Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday, setting fire to both buildings in protest of offensive caricatures of Islam's prophet.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators who had arrived at the Norwegian embassy after earlier setting fire to the Danish
embassy, about six kilometres (four miles) away.
But the protesters broke through police barriers and set fire to the building, shouting "allahu Akbar," or God is great.
They also threw stones and smashed the windows of police cars, witnesses said. They said the four-storey building was burned.
Norwegian news agency NTB quoted an unnamed embassy employee as saying no Norwegians were inside the building at the time.
Protesters then moved towards the French embassy, some nine kilometres (six miles) away.
Protests are generally heavily controlled in Syria, which has a powerful security apparatus.
But the burning of the two embassies indicated that police were taken by surprise and apparently overwhelmed by the size and violence of the crowd.
Norway and Denmark called on their citizens to leave Syria amid the spiralling tensions.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, speaking on Danish public television said it was "totally unacceptable."
Moeller said he telephoned his Syrian counterpart, Farouk al-Sharaa, to tell him it was unacceptable Syrian authorities were unable to protect the embassy.
He said al-Sharaa responded saying he regretted the incident.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said he had requested a telephone meeting with the Syrian Foreign Minister, adding that what happened was an extremely serious matter.
Earlier in the afternoon, a peaceful protest outside the Danish embassy escalated quickly when demonstrators began throwing stones and then broke through police barricades.
Some scrambled up the concrete barriers protecting the embassy and climbed into the building and set a fire.
Thick, black smoke rose from the three-storey building for about an hour before firefighters were able to put out the flames.
last week.
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