Kosovo violence 'worst since 1999'
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia-Montenegro (CNN) -- Ethnic clashes which broke out throughout many areas of Kosovo have been described by U.N. and Serb officials as the worst wave of violence in the country since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999.
"The situation is very tense," said Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo's prime minister, an Albanian, after Wednesday's violence.
"It is of high importance that every citizen calms down in order for this tense situation to calm down."
Slobodan Samardzic, chief adviser to Serbia's prime minister, told CNN that at least 10 people were killed -- three Serbs and seven Albanians.
More than 100 people were injured in the fights, which broke out in regions that total at least half the country, he said. It was the worst day of violence the country has seen since the war ended in 1999, he said.
Soldiers with the NATO-led peacekeeping mission KFOR worked to stop fighting and riots, spraying tear gas on crowds and setting up roadblocks.
Thirteen KFOR soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, KFOR spokesman Col. Jim Moran said.
Video from Caglavica, south of Pristina, showed a burning house that had been set fire by rioters. Local residents threw stones at U.N. vehicles. Soldiers were equipped in riot gear.
KFOR established a curfew at 7 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) -- and military crews were working to enforce it, a KFOR spokesman told CNN.
 Albanians clash with local Serbs in Mitrovica Wednesday. |  |
But Samardzic said the violence showed that the minority Serb community in Kosovo "cannot be protected by KFOR."
The wave of violence was triggered by the drowning of three Albanian children Tuesday night near Mitrovica, said Angela Joseph, a spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Kosovo.
The children were fleeing Serbs who were chasing them along with dogs, she said. The children crossed the river in hopes of fleeing, but were swept away by the current and drowned, she said.
Wednesday morning, hundreds of Albanians gathered in the area to mourn the children, and the crowd quickly grew to a few thousand, she said.
They began to attack Serbs, and widespread fighting broke out in the area.
Word of the drowning quickly spread through the country, triggering the clashes, she said.
