Bosnian Serb nationalists stoned the car of the country's foreign minister as he arrived for a ceremony today to launch the rebuilding of a mosque destroyed in war.
Several hundred protesters stoned the car of Foreign Minister Mr Zlatko Lagumdzija, a Muslim, and threw tear gas, stones and eggs at dozens of Muslim officials and visitors at the site.
Despite the presence of Bosnian Serb riot police the protesters, waving Serbian flags and singing nationalist songs, continued to throw stones and fireworks.
Most of Banja Luka's non-Serb residents were expelled from their homes during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. The 16th-century Ferhadija mosque - regarded as one of the finest outside the Arab world - was destroyed in 1993 by unknown perpetrators.
Two days ago Bosnian Serb nationalists assaulted international peace officials in the southern town of Trebinje, scuttling a similar ceremony for the rebuilding of another mosque.