One killed in Kosovo car bomb

International officials have condemned the attack

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- A car bomb rocked the centre of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, killing one person, and injuring at least four others.

A KFOR spokesman told CNN that an explosive device appeared to have been thrown under a car, but it was not clear who was behind the attack.

Witnesses said the blast happened near a building housing Kosovo political parties as well as a Yugoslav government office that issues passports.

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Peace in the Balkans

NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping troops with armoured vehicles cordoned off the vicinity after the blast at 2.50 p.m. (1250 GMT) on Wednesday.

Major Axel Jandesek, from KFOR, which feared more explosives may have been in the area, said: "This was more than a hand grenade because of the huge blast.

"We cannot say what kind of explosive device it was because the British ordnance disposal team is still working there."

Fragile peace

It is not clear who the victim and injured are, though Major Fergus Smith, spokesman for Britain's KFOR contingent, said "as far as I understand they are Serbs."

International officials condemned the attack, fearing its possible impact on the fragile regional peace.

United Nations police spokesman Derek Chappell, said: "This is an attack against everything that people trying to build this country are working for."

Some of the injured were said to be in a serious condition while the car was destroyed in the blast and windows nearby shattered.

Jandesek said two of the injured had been taken to the British military field hospital.

Last November, a bomb exploded in a building used by the Yugoslav representative in Kosovo, killing one staff member and injuring another.

Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia with a separatist ethnic Albanian majority, has been under U.N. administration since Serbian security forces withdrew under NATO bombing in mid-1999.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Kosovo Information
KFOR
Information Department of Albanian Government
NATO
United Nations

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