Iraq on Thursday warned it would sever diplomatic ties with Sweden if a Koran is burned again.

The warning came after hundreds of people stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set it alight in a protest against plans for one Quran to be burned in Stockholm later on Thursday.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said embassy staff were safe, but Iraqi authorities failed to protect the embassy per the Vienna Convention.

According to a statement from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, the Iraqi government strongly condemned the burning of the Swedish embassy, which declared it a security breach and vowed to protect diplomatic missions.

However, Baghdad had also “informed the Swedish government that any recurrence of the incident involving the burning of the Holy Qur’an on Swedish soil would necessitate severing diplomatic relations”, the statement said.

Mr Billstrom said what happened was “completely unacceptable, and the government strongly condemns these attacks.

“The government is in contact with high-level Iraqi representatives to express our dismay.”

Supporters of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called the demonstration to protest against the second planned Koran burning in Sweden in weeks, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked to the influential cleric and other pro-Sadr media.

Mr Sadr, one of Iraq’s most influential figures, commands hundreds of thousands of followers, whom he has sometimes called to the streets, including last summer when they occupied Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and engaged in deadly clashes.

The cleric said in a tweet that the Iraqi government should not resort only to condemnation and must take a firm position.

Finnish news agency STT reported that the Finnish embassy, which is in part of the same enclosure as the Swedish, had also been evacuated but that staff were safe and unhurt.

Swedish police on Wednesday granted an application for a public meeting outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday, the police permit showed, and two people were expected to participate.

Swedish news agency TT reported that the two planned to burn the Koran and the Iraqi flag at the public meeting, and the duo included a man who had set a Koran on fire outside a Stockholm mosque in June.

Swedish police denied several applications earlier this year for protests that were set to include burning the Koran, citing security concerns.

Courts have since overturned the police’s decisions, saying such acts are protected by the country’s far-reaching freedom of speech laws.

The Swedish government is considering changing the law to allow police to stop people from setting the Koran on fire in public if they endanger Sweden’s security.

In a series of videos posted to the Telegram group, one Baghdad showed people gathering around the Swedish embassy around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday (2200 GMT on Wednesday), chanting pro-Sadr slogans and storming the embassy complex around an hour later.

“Yes, yes to the Koran,” protesters chanted.

Videos later showed smoke rising from a building in the embassy complex and protesters standing on its roof.

Iraq’s foreign ministry also condemned the incident. It said in a statement the Iraqi government had instructed security forces to carry out a swift investigation, identify perpetrators and hold them to account.

According to Reuters witnesses by dawn on Thursday, security forces had deployed inside the embassy, and smoke rose from the building as firefighters extinguished stubborn embers.

Iraqi security forces later charged at a few dozen protesters still milling outside the embassy to clear them from the area.

Protesters had briefly thrown rocks, and projectiles towards the many security forces gathered.

(Reuters/NAN)