At least 10 people were killed and eight seriously injured in the NATO strike on the Kosovan capital early yesterday, Serbia's state news agency Tanjug said. It said NATO missiles hit the very centre of Pristina, damaging the main post office, the national bank building, the city council, as well as other administration buildings.
Tanjug said the eight injured people were receiving treatment in the Pristina hospital. The head doctor there, Dr Rade Grbic, expressed concern that the casualty toll was not final.
Rescue teams were trying to retrieve survivors beneath the rubble, and civil defence squads were hampered in clearing up the debris because of "cluster bombs", the agency said. A huge fire caused by the blast engulfed several city centre buildings and took hours to extinguish, it added.
According to the official Serbian television, it was the worst attack against Pristina, which used to have about 25,000 inhabitants before the NATO strikes started March 24th.
A fuel depot in a village on the outskirts of the city was also targeted, as were nearby Serb village of Gracanica and the all-Albanian district of Pristina, Ajvalija, according to official Serb reports.
The head of the local Serb government in Kosovo, Mr Zoran Andjelkovic, visited the impact site. Visibly shaken by the aftermath, Mr Andjelkovic called it a "crime of proportions mankind has not seen yet", Tanjug reported.