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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Oct. 15 (UPI) Several thousand ethnic Albanians broke through a cordon of KFOR troops on the bridge connecting the two parts of the Kosovo town of Mitrovica and threw explosive devices at KFOR vehicles and soldiers Friday, the Beta news agency reported.
KFOR sources confirmed that there were injuries, but did not give the exact number and who was injured.
The Albanian disturbances were expected since the U.N. civilian mission in Kosovo had announced that Albanian students would be allowed to attend classes at university facilities in the northern, Serbian controlled part of Mitrovica when a new academic year started Friday.
The Serbs had refused to permit the Albanians to enter their sector.
The Albanians had crossed a barbed wire fence and hoisted Albanian flags in the middle of the bridge, Beta reported.
Reports said a special unit of Italian carabinieri trained for controlling mass gatherings had earlier been seen on standby near the bridge.
The Albanians were blocked by strong international military and police forces on the Serbian side of the bridge backed up by armored personnel carriers, the agency said.
The Serbs gathered near the bridge and along the main street in the northern sector, awaiting the outcome of the clash between KFOR and the Albanian demonstrators, Beta said.
Neither the Albanians nor the Serbs knew how many demonstrators there were at the opposite side of the bridge because a dense fog was hanging over the area.
Beta reported that bursts of automatic fire was heard from the southern, Albanian sector of the town earlier in the morning.
The spokesman for the Serbian national council in Mitrovica, Nikola Kabasic, told Belgrade Radio B2-92 the Albanians had come to the bridgewith flags and banners from different directions. He said French and Danish troops had quickly deployed, blocking their way.
He said some 30 tanks and armored vehicles had arrived on the scene and took up positions at several points on the bridge.
Kabasic said a fierce battle had broken out between the demonstrators and KFOR troops and that he believed there were many injured peoplejudging from the constant arrivals and departures of ambulances. He saida hand grenade was hurled at French soldiers, but did not say if anywere wounded.
He said KFOR troops used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators but without success. Four helicopters hovered over thebridge and dropped tear gas canisters, he said.
On top of all surrounding high-rise buildings soldiers could be seen with sniper rifles, binoculars and video cameras, he said.
Kabasic estimated that some 10,000 Serbs were in the streets and that more were coming from nearby Zvecan and outlying Serbian villages carrying flags and national insignia. He said the tension was high but the situation at present was a stalemate, with Albanians unable to breakthrough the French blockade but not withdrawing either. He described the scene as "a great media spectacle" being filmed by some 50 mostly foreign TV crews.