Serbs take control of U.N. court

Hundreds of Serbs stormed a United Nations courthouse in northern Kosovo, took control of the site and hoisted a Serbian flag to replace the U.N.’s.

By nightfall, the flag had come down, but about 100 Kosovo Serbs remained in the yard of the building in the ethnically split city of Mitrovica. More were locked inside the courthouse, refusing to leave without a deal with U.N. authorities, a spokesman for Kosovo’s police said. Their demands were not immediately clear.

U.N. special police were on standby to take control of the court and remove protesters.

The top U.N. official in Kosovo, Joachim Ruecker, said the intruders would be prosecuted, and he called on Serbian authorities to prevent any further such incidents. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, but Serbia refuses to recognize the move.