Protesters are staging anti-American demonstrations in the Afghan cities of Kabul and Jalalabad over the burning of copies of the Koran by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops.
Shots have been fired in Kabul, where protesters have gathered outside a US military base, and the American embassy has put its staff in lockdown.
US commander in Afghanistan General John Allen apologised earlier after NATO soldiers put copies of the Koran in an incinerator at Bagram airbase.
The charred remains of the books were found by local labourers.
