Serbs protesting Kosovo split storm U.S. Embassy in Belgrade

Police eventually drove off the protesters, and firefighters brought the blaze under control.

The embassy had been open earlier in the day but was closed at the time of the evening attack. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Sean McCormick urged Serbian authorities to protect the building. He said the U.S. ambassador had been home at the time and had been in touch with State Department officials.

"There are some number of Serbian citizens who are on part of the embassy compound, in the consular building area," McCormack said before police cleared the area. "The chancery and the consular building are separate but they are in the same compound. The embassy staff is not at the chancery or at the embassy. The only people that we have right now at the embassy are the security people and the Marine guards."

An estimated 150,000 Serbs marched through the city center and prayed with leaders of the Christian Orthodox Church to lament the loss of Kosovo, until this week Serbia's southernmost province and a cherished site of the country's religious heritage.

Dominated by ethnic Albanians, Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, and the United States and several European countries quickly recognized the separation, which Russia and China had opposed.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica led today's massive protest rally. Children were given the day off from school to attend.

But groups of young, masked Serbs broke off from the main demonstration and began attacking Western embassies. They torched cars and rampaged through city streets. Chanting for Americans to go home, they ended up at the U.S. Embassy, located on a busy main street. They broke through or scaled the protective gates and set part of the building on fire.

One protester climbed up to the first floor of an embassy building, ripped the American flag off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flag in its place, Reuters reported.

Eventually, Serbian police arrived and, with clubs and batons, began beating back the crowd. Elsewhere, they fired plumes of tear gas to subdue demonstrators. The Associated Press reported that firefighters had brought the blaze under control.

Earlier this week, Serbia withdrew its ambassador from the United States to protest Washington's enthusiastic support for Kosovo's split from Serbia.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Madrid contributed to this report.