A huge explosion shook the Kosovo provincial capital Pristina today and a man was killed and four others wounded, the NATO-led KFOR peace force said.
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The 2:50 p.m. (12.50 Irish time) blast happened in a car not far from a building used by Kosovo political parties and a Yugoslav government office that issues passports in the mainly ethnic Albanian city of several hundred thousand people.
"There are two destroyed cars at the scene. One civilian was killed and there were four injured," KFOR peace force Maj Axel Jandesek told reporters.
"This was more than a hand grenade because of the huge blast. We cannot yet say what kind of explosive device it was because the British ordnance disposal team is still working there", Major Jandesek said.
Maj Fergus Smith, spokesman for Britain's KFOR contingent, told reporters the identity of the casualties had not been confirmed but that he understood they were Serbs.
Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia with a separatist ethnic Albanian majority, has been under UN administration since Serbian security forces called off an anti-guerrilla campaign and withdrew in June 1999.
Since then, Kosovo Serbs and other minorities have been the targets of deadly attacks by ethnic Albanians avenging years of repressive rule from Belgrade.
Most Serbs have fled Kosovo and the rest cling to homes in KFOR-guarded enclaves. Only a few of Pristina's pre-war 40,000 Serbs remain in the city.