(AKI) -- Five Serbs were injured on Thursday in clashes with ethnic Albanians in the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica, local officials said. Deputy police chief Predrag Vasovic told media that the incident occurred when a group of ethnic Albanians crossed into the Serb-controlled northern part of the city to repair their houses, which were damaged during ethnic fighting in 1999. "The Serbs gathered to prevent them, and the clashes broke out," Vasovic said. He said that wooden and metal sticks were used in the fighting, but eyewitnesses said that fire from automatic weapons was heard in the area.
Doctors in Mitrovica hospital said that five Serbs were treated for light injuries, but were later discharged.
Mitrovica has been a divided city ever since the withdrawal in 1999 of Serbian forces from the province, whose majority ethnic Albanians declared independence last February. The southern part of the city is controlled by ethnic Albanians and the northern part by Serbs.
The majority of some 100,000 Serbs that remained in Kosovo live north of Mitrovica, close to Serbia. Kosovo's authorities have little control over the Serb-populated north.
Thursday's clashes were broken up by United Nations police and international forces stationed in Kosovo (KFOR), officials said.
Former Kosovo prime minister, Agim Ceku, said recently that Kosovo's authorities should establish control over northern Kosovo by force, despite an international presence in the province.
Kosovo Serb leader Milan Ivanovic said Thursday's incident was "premeditated provocation". "Ethnic Albanians have done this according to an organised and synchronised plan to establish the so called independent state of Kosovo on the entire territory," Ivanovic said.