Jalalabad (Afghanistan), May 11 (Reuters): Afghan police opened fire on protesters today killing four and wounding dozens after violent demonstrations over a report that US interrogators had desecrated the Quran.

US forces stationed in the conservative Muslim city of Jalalabad, 130 km east of the capital, were called back to base when the trouble began leaving Afghan authorities to handle it, at their request, a US spokeswoman said.

Government offices were set on fire, shops looted, and UN buildings and diplomatic missions attacked as thousands of people took to the streets, witnesses and officials said.

Police fired several times to disperse crowds. Four people had been killed and 52 wounded, provincial health chief Fazel Mohammad Ibrahimi said after compiling information from three city hospitals.

“Police had to open fire on the protesters, they were destroying the city,” provincial police chief Hazrat Ali said. He declined to comment on casualties.

About 1,000 school students demonstrated in nearby Laghman province. In Khost city, also in the east, protesters burned a picture of President George. W. Bush and a US flag.

Newsweek magazine said in a recent edition that investigators probing abuses at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay had discovered that interrogators “had placed Qurans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet”.

Muslims consider the Quran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. US-backed President Hamid Karzai said in Brussels the violence showed Afghan authorities were not ready to handle protests.