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Hundreds of people in a Bangladesh town on Thursday beat and lynched a man who had allegedly desecrated the Koran, police said.

The crowd seized two men who had been in official custody after they were accused of stepping on a copy of the Islamic holy book in the main mosque of the town of Burimari, near the frontier with India, police said. The second man escaped with injuries.

"They beat one man to death and then burnt the body," district police chief Abida Sultana told AFP.

Police took the two men into protective custody in a municipal office after the allegations were made by worshippers at the Burimari Jame Masjid mosque.

They said more 1,000 people stormed the council office and police fired 17 live shotgun rounds in a bid to calm the crowd but could not stop them seizing the 35-year-old man. The victim was beaten to death before the crowd torched the office and burned the body in the street.

The incident came amid mounting anger in the Muslim majority country over comments about Islam made by France's President Emmanuel Macron.

Tens of thousands of people took part in anti-French rallies this week in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong. More demonstrations have been called for Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.

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