Police in riot gear moved against thousands of young protesters who had taken over a major thoroughfare in south central Belgrade last night in the wake of a protest about a clampdown on free media by the Milosovic regime.
Several thousand young people, who overturned rubbish bins and concrete litter holders as makeshift barricades on Srpskih Vladara, began stripping iron bars from scaffolding of a nearby building site, then moved towards police with the cry: "Let's go forward, let's attack."
Earlier police had blocked a crowd of people marching from a Red Star football game on the outskirts of the Serbian capital to City Hall, where a major demonstration was taking place attended by more than 10,000 angry people, waving opposition party flags, brandishing the banner of the students' resistance movement, OTPOR, and whistling in protest against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic.
The evening degenerated into violence as riot police surrounded a crucial intersection in Belgrade close to the skyscraper building housing many of the leading non-government media - radio, television and print - that police had shut down early yesterday morning.
On a central street in Belgrade parallel to the intersection a group of six officers in full riot gear moved suddenly into the traffic and tried to stop a white car. They smashed the windows with their truncheons, pulled out the occupants, including a girl and when the driver remonstrated, one policeman repeatedly struck him with his baton.
Opposition leaders said a campaign of passive civil disobedience would start today and announced a series of protest rallies across the country in towns held by the Opposition.
Several cities last night held rallies at the same time as Belgrade, including Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Kraljavo, Prokupulje, Uzice, and Basina Basta. The silencing of the leading non-government television, print and radio media in a clampdown yesterday is viewed by many as a prelude to the imposition of martial law.
Several hundred armed plainclothes police stormed the skyscraper in the capital, Belgrade, which houses Studio B, the only opposition television station which can broadcast to a large part of the country.
Police also shut down the highest-circulation newspaper in Yugoslavia, Blic, which sells 200,000 copies a day, Serbia's popular radio station B2-92, the student Radio Indeks and a further television and radio station, all of which are housed in the same building.
Officials from Belgrade City Hall, which owns Studio B and is controlled by the opposition, met diplomats from at least 11 countries soon after the shutdown. The mayor, Mr Vojislav Mihajlovic, described the move on Studio B as "an assault on the very foundations of press freedom".
Last night, a team of journalists and technicians alleged by Studio B chiefs to be linked to the state-owned broadcaster Radio Television Serbia (RTS) were broadcasting from Studio B, airing news similar to that of RTS, viewed as the mouthpiece of the regime.
The regime's possession of Studio B gives it an effective monopoly of countrywide broadcasting prior to crucial local and federal elections that, according to the constitution, should be held by the end of this year.
"About two o'clock in the morning, several hundred policemen dressed in plain clothes, some wearing masks, entered the premises," said Ms Danka Kojadinovic, the station's deputy manager.
They dismantled the Studio B equipment and set up new equipment in the offices. They held five technicians for nine hours before releasing them unharmed. About an hour later, police moved on the Studio B transmitter on the outskirts of Belgrade.
"The government of Serbia is accusing us of violating state property and calling for a popular uprising," said Ms Kojadinovic, describing the allegations as "notorious lies".
On the streets of Belgrade, people expressed dismay at the media clampdown. "I think it's terrible," said Dara Mihajlovic (40), an engineer. "I think the situation will simply get worse if Milosevic does not give up power - and if he stays, this will be a catastrophe for us."
Vladimir Kostic (25), hurrying down the hill towards Studio B, said: "This is the second time this has happened to me. I was in Pristina, working in multi-ethnic radio called Contact and the police came into our offices and shut our frequency down. So I came here to show support for my colleagues.
"This is what happened to Albanians for 10 years in Kosovo - and exactly the same thing is happening to the Serbs now. This is not an ethnic conflict any more. This is an internal conflict."