Five bodies were found in a bank set ablaze in unrest that erupted in Morocco at the weekend after thousands of people demonstrated in several cities for change, the government said yesterday.

Another 128 people, including 115 members of the security forces, were wounded in the violence that followed largely peaceful demonstrations on Sunday to demand political reform, Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui told reporters.

The minister said 120 people were arrested after the unrest in around six cities but minors among those rounded up had been returned to their families.

The Morocco protests demanding political reform and limits on the powers of King Mohammed VI follow uprisings across the region, with ones in Tunisia and Egypt causing their longtime presidents to quit.

The “burned bodies of five people were recovered inside one of the bank branches set alight by rioters in the city of Al Hoceima,” Mr Cherkaoui said.

The official MAP news agency, citing witnesses, said the bodies were of “rioters who had tried to loot the bank” while others set fire to the building.

The minister blamed Sunday’s violence on rioters and ex-convicts, saying they had damaged or set fire to 33 public buildings, 24 banks, 50 businesses or private buildings and 66 vehicles.

In the northern town of Larache they had entered a customs building and made off with confiscated drugs and alcohol, he said.

Mr Cherkaoui said the demonstrations had largely taken place in “calm and discipline” because Moroccans had the democratic right to express themselves. About 37,000 took part, he said.

Witnesses said police used tear gas against protesters in Al Hoceima after they set fire to cars and threw stones at a police station.

Communication Minister Khalid Naciri vowed that the government would speed up reforms in the wake of Sunday’s pro-reform protests.