Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning, scaling its walls and setting it on fire in protest against the expected burning of a Quran in Sweden.
All Baghdad embassy staff were safe, the Swedish foreign ministry press office said in a statement, condemning the attack and highlighting the need for Iraqi authorities to protect diplomatic missions. The ministry did not immediately reply to a request for further detail.
Thursday's demonstration was called by supporters of cleric Muqtada Sadr to protest the second planned Quran burning in Sweden in weeks, according to posts in a popular Telegram group.
Swedish police on Wednesday granted an application for a public meeting outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday, the police permit showed. Police said in the permit two people were expected to participate.
Swedish news agency TT reported that the two planned to burn the Quran and the Iraqi flag at the public meeting, and included a man who set a Quran on fire outside a Stockholm mosque in June.
Swedish police denied several applications earlier this year for protests that were set to include burning the Quran, citing security concerns. Courts have since overturned the police's decisions, saying such acts are protected by the country's far-reaching freedom of speech laws.
A series of videos posted to the Telegram group showed people gathering around the Swedish embassy around 1 a.m. on Thursday (2200 GMT on Wednesday) chanting pro-Sadr slogans and storming the embassy complex around an hour later.
Videos later showed smoke rising from a building in the embassy complex and protesters standing on its roof.
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