Related: Protestors set fire to Danish consulate in Beirut

    

Lebanon's Interior Minister Hassan Sabei, makes a phone call in Beirut, Lebanon, in Apr.19, 2005 file photo. Sabei resigned Sunday Feb. 5, 2006 hours after demonstrators set fire to the Danish consulate in Beirut to protest against caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad first published by a Danish newspaper. (Xinhua/Reuters)

BEIRUT, Feb. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Lebanon's Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh resigned hours after demonstrators set fire to the Danish consulate in Beirut on Sunday to protest against caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad first published by a Danish newspaper.

    He said he had refused to give security forces the order to fire on the protestors because "I did not want to be responsible for any carnage.

    "Despite the intervention of more than 1,000 members of the security forces, we were unable to impose order because of the determination of the protestors, who numbered several thousand."

    About 2,000 Lebanese staged a sit-in outside the Danish consulate on Sunday and the initially peaceful protest turned violent as protestors attempted to break through the security barrier which prompted the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse them, witnesses said.

    The angry protestors then torched the building housing the consulate, said witnesses, adding that dozens of people were wounded in the clashes with riot police and a number of cars were set on fire.

    The violence erupted the day after a similar attack on the embassies of Denmark and Norway in neighboring Syria over the publication in their countries of the caricatures of the Muslim prophet. Enditem