Tunisia death toll rises to four in U.S. embassy attack

TUNIS (Reuters) - The death toll from Friday's attack on the U.S. embassy in Tunis, provoked by a film that mocks the Prophet Mohammed, rose to four, with 46 people injured, a hospital official said.

Police fought hundreds of protesters who smashed windows, hurled petrol bombs and stones at police from inside, and started fires in the embassy. A Reuters reporter saw police open fire on protesters forcing their way into the embassy building.

"The death toll is four dead - three were killed from gunshot wounds, the other was hit by two police cars," Nourredine Hard, a senior official at the Mongi Slim hospital in Tunis said on Saturday. He said 46 were injured.

Late on Friday, Health Minister Abd Elatif Meki had told state media at least two people died and 29 were injured.

Anger about the film tore across the Middle East after weekly prayers on Friday with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at its missions.

The protests came three days after the amateurish film of obscure origin triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans on September 11.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Louise Ireland)