Danish police have shot and injured a Somali man trying to enter the home of Kurt Westergaard, whose controversial cartoon of Islam’s prophet sparked riots across the Muslim world in 2006.

The Danish cartoonist, who has received several death threats since a Danish newspaper published his drawing featuring Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, was at home in Viby near the western city of Aarhus when the 27- or 28-year-old tried to get in, reports Danish daily Politiken online.

Guards, alerted by security alarms, prevented the man from getting in. The intruder was taken to hospital.

Denmark's Ritzau news agency reports a dozen police vehicles were at the scene while sappers were sent in to check for any bombs. According to officials of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) the attacker has ties with the radical Islamic al-Shabab militia.

The 74-year-old Westergaard is one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Muslim prophet were first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, sparking controversy among Muslims worldwide.

The 12 cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests worldwide in January and February 2006, when the publication of the cartoons became more widely known.

Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.

(AFP/reuters)