Nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them hardline Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement or football fans, gathered at the embassy in protest over a film deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed which was produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Christian minority resident in the United States.

A dozen men scaled over the embassy walls and one of them tore down the Stars and Stripes, replacing it with a black flag inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

Police intervened without resort to force and persuaded the demonstrators to come down.