ATHENS, Sept 23: Muslims on Sunday continued to vent their fury against an anti-Islam film made in the United States with Greece witnessing its first such rally.

The protesters in central Athens chanted “All we have is Mohammad” and held banners reading “We demand an immediate punishment for those who tried to mock our Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him)” as they prepared to march on the US embassy.

There were brief moments of tension when some demonstrators hurled bottles at police, who responded with teargas.

Police shut down a subway station and were considering blocking the march before it reached the heavily guarded embassy to prevent possible violence, police officials said.

Greece is home to hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

In Tehran, nearly 400 Iranians gathered at the French embassy to protest against the film and publication of sacrilegious cartoons by a French magazine, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

They held placards reading “The silence of Muslims is a betrayal of the Quran” and “Shia brothers, Sunni brothers, unity, unity”, and chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel” and “Death to France”.

One police officer fired a blank round in warning after a protester threw an egg that hit the outside of the embassy. The demonstration ended after around 90 minutes.

In the Lebanese town of Hermel, thousands of supporters of the powerful Shia militant group Hezbollah took part in the last in a series of protests against the film.

The Hermel protest was the fifth in a series of demonstrations called for by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah who made a rare public appearance on Sept 17 and urged supporters to vent their fury over the film.

The protests against the film and cartoons have been staged in several towns across Lebanon, without resulting in violence.

But protests by Sunni Islamists in the northern city of Tripoli on Sept 14 led to clashes with police in which one demonstrator was killed and 25 people were injured.

Reports from Bangladeshi said most schools, shops and offices were closed in the country on Sunday as opposition parties enforced a nationwide strike to protest against the film.

Thousands of police patrolled the capital Dhaka and roads were quiet across the country on what is normally a business day in the Muslim-majority country of 153 million people.

In Hong Kong, thousands protested. The protesters, including women in headscarf and children, briefly clashed with the police as they tried to break through a cordon outside the US consulate.

“Freedom of speech should not be used against any religion,” said Saeed Uddin of the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong.

Hundreds of Saudis demonstrated against the film at a Shia village in the Eastern Province of the kingdom, which bans any protests, witnesses said.

In east Jerusalem, a Palestinian woman reportedly tried to stab an Israeli policeman on a street on Sunday, apparently in protest at the anti-Islam film, an Israeli police spokesman said.

“An Arab woman this morning tried to attack an Israeli policeman, who managed to control the situation and no one was injured,” spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

“The women, aged 32, is from the Silwan neighbourhood. She was arrested and her knife seized,” he added. “Preliminary questioning revealed she was attempting to protest against the film,” Mr Rosenfeld said.

Similar protests were also held in Nigeria and Turkey.—Agencies