Sep 16, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
PARIS (AP) — Police say they are reinforcing security around the American Embassy in Paris, a day after hundreds of people gathered outside the building to protest a film produced in the United States that insults the Prophet Muhammad.
Police officer Pierre Coric says more uniformed and plain clothes police have been put in place Sunday on the streets surrounding the embassy.
On Saturday afternoon, up to 250 protesters gathered around the U.S. Embassy in Paris responding to a call put out on Facebook, police officer Pierre Coric said.
Television images showed Muslim protesters praying on the wide, tree-lined sidewalks in the embassy’s upscale neighborhood just off the famed Champs-Elysees avenue.
The demonstration was part of a wave of protests by Muslims outside U.S. diplomatic posts around the world, some of which have turned violent. The U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed in one, and some protesters stormed of the embassy compound in Tunisia in another.
The protesters had no permit, so police broke up the demonstration, briefly detaining 150 of them. Coric said those detained would have their IDs checked and then be let go. Four police officers were slightly injured, Coric said. One person remains in custody for roughing up an officer.
