Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday and set fireplace to it, Reuters reported, citing a witness and different sources, as current episodes of Quran burning within the European nation have angered many within the Muslim world and drawn condemnation from the Swedish authorities.

Footage shared on social media confirmed a constructing recognized because the embassy in flames and other people with items of the building in their hands. The photos couldn’t be instantly verified.

Reuters cited a supply as saying that no embassy workers had been harmed. The news company mentioned embassy officers had not instantly responded to requests for remark.

In June, after a man tore up and burned the Quran outdoors the central mosque in Stockholm on the primary day of the Muslim vacation of Eid al-Adha, a whole lot of individuals in Iraq protested outdoors the Baghdad embassy on the urging of Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist cleric.

He had referred to as on the Iraqi authorities to interrupt off diplomatic relations with Sweden, which he mentioned was “hostile” to Islam.

Iran’s international minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, mentioned earlier this month that his nation would chorus from sending a brand new ambassador to Sweden in protest, Reuters reported. And Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden’s chargé d’affaires to sentence what it mentioned was an insult to probably the most sacred Islamic values.

“Although administrative procedures to appoint a new ambassador to Sweden have ended, the process of dispatching them has been held off due to the Swedish government’s issuing of a permit to desecrate the Holy Quran,” Mr. Amirabdollahian mentioned on Twitter.

Egypt referred to as the burning of the Quran “a disgraceful act,” and Saudi Arabia mentioned that such “hateful and repeated acts cannot be accepted with any justification.” Malaysia’s foreign minister mentioned the desecration of the holy ebook throughout an necessary vacation was “offensive to Muslims worldwide.”

The Swedish police charged the person who burned the Quran with agitation in opposition to an ethnic or nationwide group. In a newspaper interview, he described himself as an Iraqi refugee in search of to ban it.

The protest on Thursday was additionally referred to as by supporters of Mr. al-Sadr, forward of one other anticipated burning of the Muslim holy ebook in Sweden.

A sequence of movies posted by One Baghdad, a well-liked Telegram channel that helps Mr. al-Sadr, confirmed folks gathering across the embassy round 1 a.m. native time and storming the embassy complicated about an hour later, Reuters reported.

Later, the news company mentioned, movies confirmed smoke rising from a constructing within the embassy complicated. It was not instantly clear if anybody was contained in the embassy on the time, Reuters mentioned.

In January, somebody set the Quran on fireplace near Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, and a far-right journalist and anti-Islam provocateur, Rasmus Paludan, a twin Danish-Swedish nationwide with hyperlinks to Kremlin-backed media, later confirmed that he had paid for the allow to carry what he referred to as a protest. But he denied paying anybody to burn the holy ebook.

While the Swedish police have rejected a number of current purposes for anti-Quran demonstrations, courts have overruled these selections, saying they infringed on freedom of speech.

Turkey had cited the desecration of the Quran because it stalled Sweden’s bid to enter NATO, which wants the approval of all members, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry mentioned in a press release in January.

Sweden’s international minister, Tobias Billstrom, has characterised Islamophobic provocations as appalling.

Turkey this month appeared to relent on Sweden’s NATO bid, although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey later mentioned that the ultimate choice rested with its Parliament and that Sweden needed to take more steps to win the country’s support.