Rioters burn U.S embassy in Belgrade
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Scores of protesters smashed their wayinto the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday in anger atKosovo's independence, ransacking rooms and setting firesbefore riot police dispersed the crowd.
Police, nowhere to be seen earlier as the building wasattacked, moved in half an hour later, firing teargas andbeating and detaining rioters.
Local media said more than 30 people were injured, half ofthem police, and taken to hospital.
Police in armoured vans secured the streets and tried tocordon off the whole embassy district. Local agencies reportedattacks on missions of several other countries, among themBritain, Croatia, Bosnia and Turkey.
People tried to flee clouds of painful teargas. Policehelicopters flew over the area.
The United States urged Belgrade to protect its embassy,and Serbian President Boris Tadic urged rioters to stop.
"I appeal to our citizens to protest calmly. All those whotake part in the unrest I want to withdraw from the streets andstop attacking foreign embassies," he said on a visit toRomania, according to Beta news agency.
"This only keeps Kosovo distant from Serbia."
The storming of the U.S. embassy, which had been closed andboarded up after rioters stoned it earlier in the week, cameduring a state-backed rally to protest at Kosovo's secession onSunday attended by some 200,000 people.
Rioters -- many wearing balaclavas and scarves to hidetheir faces -- had attacked the building with sticks and metalbars after destroying two guard boxes outside.
They ripped metal grilles from windows and tore a handrailoff the entrance to use as a battering ram and gain entry.
One man climbed up to the first floor, ripped the Stars andStripes off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flag.
Other people jumped up and down on the balcony, holding upa Serbian flag as the crowd below of about 1,000 people cheeredthem on, shouting "Serbia, Serbia".
Black smoke billowed out of the embassy. Papers and chairswere thrown out of the windows, with doors wedged in the windowframes and burning.
Some 200 riot police arrived half an hour later, drivingthe crowd away. Some protesters sat on the ground, bleeding.Fire engines arrived to put out the flames, local mediareported.
Meanwhile, the main rally proceeded as planned with a marchto the city's biggest Orthodox cathedral for a prayer service,just several hundred metres (yards) away.
State television switched between scenes of the rioting andthe choral singing of the church service.
News agencies said some foreign banks and McDonaldsfast-food stores were also attacked and eight city busesdamaged.
Washington urged Belgrade to keep order.
"We are in contact with the Serbian government to ensurethat they devote the appropriate assets to fulfil theirinternational obligations to help protect diplomaticfacilities, in this case our embassy," said a State Departmentspokesman.
"They (Serbia) have been up until this point very good."
(Reporting by Ellie Tzortzi, edited by Richard Meares)