KOSOVO: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has met his national security council as tensions rise in Kosovo between the authorities there and ethnic Serbs.
On Saturday a stun grenade was thrown at EU police in north Kosovo, where Serbs form a majority, and local police exchanged fire with unknown groups.
Ethnic Serbs set up road blocks after Kosovan police were deployed in a dispute over car number plates.
Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.
Kosovo, which has an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority, broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99.
Nato, which has peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, called on all parties to avoid provocations. The EU has done likewise, warning that it will not tolerate attacks on EU police or criminal acts.
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell repeated his call for de-escalation from both Kosovo and Serbia. “They have to find a way to end the tendency to fighting in the streets, to creating blockades,” he said.
The latest unrest was triggered by the arrest of a Serb former police officer on Saturday.
Speaking to Reuters news agency after meeting his national security council, Mr Vučić said he wanted to defuse the situation.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the protesters as “criminal gangs” and asked the Nato-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) to remove the barricades
