One dead, 25 hurt in Lebanon anti-film demo: Security

Tripoli: A demonstrator was killed and 25 people hurt in clashes with police on Friday after an angry crowd of Islamists set fire to a KFC restaurant in northern Lebanon, a security source said.

The crowd of some 300 people were protesting at a US-made film that mocks Islam, an AFP correspondent said.

The attack on the US fast-food chain's outlet came as Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Lebanon for a three-day visit, calling for Christian-Muslim coexistence and attacking religious extremism.

The demonstrators poured out of a mosque after weekly Muslim prayers in the centre of the northern port city, waving traditional Islamist black flags and shouting against the United States and the pope.

When they arrived at the restaurant, located in southern Tripoli, they began hurling stones at police, wounding five of them, the correspondent said.

Police responded with tear gas and by firing into the air. The fatal victim died of a gunshot wound, but the circumstances were not immediately clear. 

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