Gangs of rioters set fire to cars and garbage trucks in northern Copenhagen last night, the sixth night of rioting and vandalism that has spread from the capital to other Danish cities.
Five youths were arrested in the capital after 28 cars and 35 rubbish trucks were burned, Copenhagen police said. Several youths were arrested in other Danish towns.
Scores of cars and several schools have been vandalised or burned in the past week. Police could give no reason, but said that unusually mild weather and the closure of schools for a winter break, making them easy targets, might have contributed.
Social workers said the reprinting of a two-year-old cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers might have fuelled the riots.
Police arrested two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent on Tuesday for planning to kill the cartoonist, and 15 Danish papers reprinted the drawing on Wednesday in protest against the alleged plot to murder him.
Several hundred Muslims gathered in central Copenhagen yesterday to protest against publication of the cartoon. Most Muslims consider depictions of the founder of Islam offensive.
The publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons of Muhammad two years ago - including the one reprinted this week - led to protests and rioting in Muslim countries in which at least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies attacked.
In October police arrested more than 400 people in Copenhagen after demonstrators evicted from a youth centre earlier in the year tried to occupy a new building.