British and French NATO troops fired tear-gas and baton-charged 6,000 Albanian demonstrators trying to storm their way across the main western bridge in the ethnically divided Kosovan town of Mitrovica, NATO officials and eyewitnesses said.
British troops from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Green Jackets held back thousands of Albanians throwing rocks, bottles and stones in driving snow and icy winds, while French police fired tear-gas and baton-charged thousands of demonstrators who had converged on the city.
An estimated 1,000 Serbs gathered on the northern, Serb-dominated side of the River Ibar, which separates the Albanian and Serb communities in the town, while 25 French and British Warrior and VAB armoured vehicles blocked access across the bridge.
"Six thousand Albanian demonstrators had gathered at the southern end of the bridge," said NATO spokesman Lieut-Commander Philip Anido in the regional capital, Pristina.
"Three thousand were trying to storm the bridge, while 1,000 Serbs were gathered at the far end," said a NATO spokesman, Sgt-Maj Mark Cox. "The French fired tear-gas. Five thousand other demonstrators had gathered nearby."
As night fell in Mitrovica and NATO troops tried to enforce a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, thousands of demonstrators surged against barbed-wire barriers while British and French soldiers, wearing riot-gear, and carrying assault-rifles and grenade-launchers, held them back.
In heavy snow, an estimated 30,000 people choked the centre of the scruffy industrial town, a flashpoint of violence since NATO peacekeepers entered Kosovo in June last year.
"If these people have not started to move back to Pristina, back home, by 8 p.m., then we will force them," said a French officer, Maj Nicholas Naudin.
NATO said that there were no reports of any of its peacekeepers being killed or injured.
"We're unclear how all these demonstrators were allowed by NATO into the centre of the city after the march today," said Lieut-Cmdr Anido.
NATO temporarily suspended for security reasons a huge operation involving 2,500 troops aimed at Serb paramilitaries operating in the north of the city.
Many of the troops were diverted specifically to provide additional security after a huge demonstration involving 30,000 Albanians arrived on the outskirts of Mitrovica after marching from the capital, Pristina, 25 miles away.
The demonstration, named "A March for Kosovo", was called to protest against the ethnic divisions that exist in Mitrovica, where Serbs and Albanians live divided by the River Ibar.
Around 10,000 Albanians left Pristina at 8 a.m., according to NATO troops escorting the march. Walking into a snowstorm in biting winds, the demonstrators were joined by thousands who attached themselves to the tail of the march from villages along the way.
"Without Mitrovica there is no Kosovo", read one banner, while another said "Mitrovica we are with you".
By late afternoon the demonstration, 30,000-strong, was on the outskirts of Mitrovica, and had been halted by NATO troops who blocked access to the city.
Inside Mitrovica, 3,000 Albanian demonstrators were already gathered on the southern side of the Ibar, at one point breaking through security cordons operated by British and French troops.
On the opposite side of Mitrovica's western bridge, 1,000 Serbs awaited the arrival of the demonstrators.
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Gen Wesley Clark of the US, said in Pristina earlier yesterday that a massive cordon-and-search operation involving 2,500 NATO troops had swung into action in northern Mitrovica, targeting Serb paramilitary groups operating in the city. A French NATO spokesman said late yesterday that the search operations had been temporarily suspended.
Twelve Albanian and Serb civilians have died, and more than 50 people been injured, including NATO peacekeepers, in a three-week wave of violence centred on Mitrovica.
The NATO Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, warned in Brussels that the Yugoslav army of President Slobodan Milosevic had used the ongoing insecurity in Mitrovica as a cover to move large concentrations of troops into the southern Serbian zone abutting Kosovo.
"There is clearly rising tension in the southern part of Serbia and large numbers of additional Yugoslav troops have moved into the area", Lord Robertson said.