In a night of heavy bombing, the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was hit and set on fire. Early reports said 26 Chinese people were injured and two missing. Later, China's Xinhua news agency put the figures at four injured and four missing.
The signs that it would not be a quiet night in Belgrade had begun at around 8.30 p.m. when the sky over the city was lit up with antiaircraft fire and the dull sound of explosions could be heard from just beyond the city centre. Word spread that three generators had been hit, plunging Belgrade back into darkness.
At 11.45 p.m. a series of enormous explosions rocked both downtown Belgrade and New Belgrade across the bridge. As journalists emptied out of the Hyatt Hotel, planes and missiles could be seen directly overhead. And then, just one kilometre from the hotel, the Chinese Embassy was hit.
I drove there and saw the building in flames. Pieces of concrete were strewn on the street for a quarter of a mile. Outside, hundreds of Chinese people were crying and shouting. Ambulances surrounded the embassy as fire-fighters fought the flames which had engulfed a corner of the building on the third floor. The Chinese ambassador who had been in the building at the time of the strike tried to comfort and calm his colleagues.
From there I drove to other sites that had been hit. The air was thick with a greenish smoke, which emanated from the fuel storage area of the Hotel Yugoslavia which had also been struck.
Throughout the streets of the centre of town windows were blown out of buildings. Streets were lined with shattered glass, chunks of concrete and twisted metal. I raced past one street and saw the windows of the Red Cross blown out.
Fire-fighters and police were scattered trying to get to the numerous hits which included the army headquarters, struck for the second time. That building was completely engulfed in flames.