Serb protesters in Kosovo threw teargas and stun grenades at Nato soldiers as protests escalated after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb-majority area after elections that the Serbs boycotted.

About 25 Nato peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo, including that of Zvecan, have been injured in the clashes with Serb protesters.

Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia