Ethnic Albanians and Serbs clash in divided town

Riot police have used tear gas and pepper spray to separate hundreds of ethnic Albanian protesters and Serbs voting in local Serbian elections in the tensely divided town of Mitrovica.

Nato peacekeepers and European Union police units were also deployed to prevent clashes on the bridge that splits the town into Serb north and Albanian south.

About 2,000 ethnic Albanians, led by veterans of the 1998-1999 war against Serbia, were protesting against the vote in the Serb part of Mitrovica, which they considered a breach of Kosovo's sovereignty.

Serbia doesn't recognise Kosovo's independence.

Singing nationalist songs and chanting the name of the now-disbanded guerrilla army that fought Serb forces in Kosovo, they marched toward the bridge, where hundreds of Serb counter-demonstrators throwing rocks and fireworks were being held back by police.

Mitrovica was halved 11 years ago in the aftermath of the Kosovo Albanian rebellion against Serbia after French peacekeepers moved to protect Serbs from Albanians seeking vengeance for their treatment by the Serbs during the violence.

Since then, countless efforts have been made to bring the sides together, but have largely failed.

Serbia - and Kosovo's Serbs - refuse to accept the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008.