CAIRO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A crowd of Syrians stormed the Syrian embassy in Cairo smashing furniture and equipment and setting fire to parts of the building in protest over the latest bloodshed in the country, an embassy official and a witness said on Saturday.
Rallies also broke out outside Syria's embassies in Britain, Germany and the United States after human rights activists reported more than 200 people were killed in shelling by government forces in the city of Homs.
In Cairo, embassy official Ammar Mohamed said he had been told by security officials about the overnight attack and arrived at the site to assess the damage. The scene was calm by early morning and Egyptian police were guarding the embassy.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a police station a few streets from the embassy to demand the release of six Syrians who they said were detained during the protest at the mission.
The gate of the embassy in central Cairo was broken and furniture and computers were smashed on the second floor of the building, a Reuters witness said, viewing the site after the attack. Parts of the first floor were burned, he said.
It was the second such attack on the mission. The embassy was broken into last week in another protest against Syria's crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. (Reporting by Ahmed el-Shimy; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Maria Golovnina)