Peacekeepers evacuate Kosovo Albanians

The violence broke out late Thursday between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in the North of the town after a grenade was thrown into a Serb cafe and an elderly ethnic Albanian couple were found shot in their apartment. UN spokeswoman Susan Manuel described the flare-up as a "terrifying and appalling increase in multi-ethnic violence."

KFOR troops evacuated international aid workers and UN staff from northern Mitrovica overnight and were moving dozens of families among the 4,500 ethnic Albanians thought to live there to the Muslim South.

Staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)said they had moved their offices South of the river after three of their vehicles in the North were destroyed by mobs, together with two vehicles of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The unrest erupted a day after two elderly Serbs were killed and three wounded when unidentified attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a UNHCR bus full of Serbian refugees escorted by KFOR troops. UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini said Albanians from the Serb sector had told "horrifying stories" of having doors "blown in by plastic explosives" and being physically abused and warned to leave the area or be killed. KFOR helicopters were flying over the town dropping leaflets in Serbian, Albanian and English alerting the population to the curfew.

Peacekeepers put the death toll at six ethnic Albanians, while another six were wounded, two seriously.

Three were initially reported killed, including an elderly couple shot dead in their apartment, but another two bodies were found Friday bypeacekeeping troops, KFOR officials said. A boy of 14 later died of his wounds in a Moroccan-run hospital in the South. Surgeon Aleksandar Belovic in the northern hospital said another ethnic Albanian woman had died of grenade injuries, bringing the total to seven dead.

At least 15 Serbs were reported injured in the unrest, KFOR officials said, after a grenade was lobbed into the Belami cafe late Thursday. Hospital sources said 11 young Serbs were still fighting for their lives late Friday.