Furious with Kosovo proclaiming its independence, Serbs attacked and set fire to two check points at the new Kosovo border, forcing local police to call upon NATO's KFOR peacekeepers for help.

According to a Reuters source it was only a matter of time before NATO closed down the bridges separating Mitrovica into a Serbian and an Albanian part.

“The border check point at Gate 1 in Jarinje is destroyed. There are no people hurt,” a Kosovo police spokesperson said.

According to Reuters, Serbs also attacked a check point near Zubin Potok. The police officers hid in a tunnel while about 1000 protesters tried to tear it down.

“We asked NATO to send a helicopter to evacuate our officers,” a police source told Reuters.

Just 30km away from Mitrovica, hundreds of Serbs set fire to the temporary passport control premises in Banja. “We cannot allow that institutions of a non-existent state be imposed upon us and that we be made pay taxes to some independent Kosovo. This is impossible,” Slaviša Ristić, one of the local Serb leaders told Associated Press, as reported by Dnevnik daily. 

KFOR's contingent in the region consists of 17 000 French, Danish, Belgian and Americans troops. The incidents showed it would be very hard for EU's Kosovo mission (EU-LEX), was due to deploy this week, to carry out its tasks with only 2000 police officers and law experts on its team.