Tensions flared again in Iraq on Saturday over a series of recent protests in Europe involving the desecration of the Quran which have sparked a debate over the balance between freedom of speech and religious sensitivities.

Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq’s government, early on Saturday following reports that an ultranationalist group burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

The protest came two days after people angered by the planned burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.

Security forces on Saturday pushed back protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing themfrom reaching the Danish embassy.

Elsewhere in Iraq, protesters burned three caravans belonging to a demining project run by the Danish Refugee Council in the city of Basra in the south, local police said in a statement.

The fire was extinguished by civil defence responders, and there were “no human casualties, only material losses”, the statement said.

Iraq’s Prime Minister has cut diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Quran in that country.