Yugoslav troops exchanged heavy fire with guerrillas in northwest Macedonia today as fighting spread to the heartland of the country's ethnic Albanian minority.
The fighting was focused in a forest just 1.5 kilometres away from Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian town of Tetovo.
The director of Tetovo's hospital said 11 police and three civilians had been treated for gunshot wounds.
In Tetovo, people stood in the streets and on the balconies watching the unfolding battle.
Police trucks headed towards the town while passenger cars loaded with people and household belongings poured out.
The major fear for the government and the West had been that violence would spread from the northern villages where it began last month to the Tetovo area, where the ethnic Albanians who make up a third of the population are concentrated.