A huge Yugoslav munitions dump was hit by NATO bombers late last night, causing a massive explosion on the outskirts of Belgrade. Shortly afterwards the city authorities warned residents that toxic fumes had escaped and that they should don gas masks.
In a series of explosions, one or more bombs appeared to have hit the Avala munitions dump, about 15km from central Belgrade. An enormous explosion followed which rocked parts of the centre of the city.
The authorities said that two chemical plants were hit at Sremcica and Batajnica, on the south-eastern and south-western outskirts of the capital.
Earlier in the day, NATO's war against the Yugoslav military escalated as two US F-15s shot down two Serb fighter aircraft over Bosnia and attacked military targets with cruise missiles and bombs for a third day and night. A Yugoslav government claim that it also shot down a NATO plane could not be confirmed.
The Yugoslav MiG 29s were believed to have been attacking western soldiers in Bosnia when they were shot down. The fate of the pilots was unknown last night, but the Pentagon said one of the MiGs came down over an area controlled by Russian troops serving with the S-For international peace-keeping force.
For its part, Belgrade said it downed a NATO plane 15km from the Bosnian town of Bijelina, but provided no further details.
NATO continued bombarding targets using US B52 bombers which left Britain in the morning, as well as F-16 fighters and British Harriers which took off from bases in Italy.
NATO announced it had hit the towns of Nis, Pristina, Urosevac and Danilovgrad, while Belgrade acknowledged the destruction of airfields, airports, telecommunications facilities and command posts in Thursday night's attack.
The Yugoslav Information Minister, Mr Milan Komnenic, said there had been little loss of life in the Yugoslav army because the country has an efficient early warning system. Belgrade television reported that a Serb police officer in Kosovo was wounded and two were missing after four missiles hit Prizren on Thursday night.
A military camp was hit in Urosevac and one police officer was wounded when a police station there was destroyed. In Nis, 180km south of Belgrade, a hospital and three schools were damaged, with no casualties. Several houses and a school were hit in Leskovac, southern Serbia, again without casualties.
Opposition to the raids was being expressed forcefully in Athens last night, with up to 10,000 protesters fighting running battles with police trying to prevent them attacking the American embassy. Similar, though less violent protests, were taking place in Nicosia, Slovakia, Warsaw, and Rotterdam. In Belgrade, Serb officials took an Italian parliamentary delegation to visit the damaged DMB vehicle factory in Racovica, just outside the capital, and a school that was hit in nearby Knezevic.
The visit was curtailed when air raid sirens sounded - as they did several times during the day.
In the first political response by Belgrade since the war started, the deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia, Mr Vuk Draskovic, pleaded for a cessation to the bombing and offered partial Serb compliance with the Rambouillet peace accord.
Two parallel and intertwined governments are ensconsed in Belgrade - a Serb government, headed by President Milan Milutinovic, and a Yugoslav government - presided over by President Slobodan Milosevic - which includes representatives of Montegro as well as Serbia.
Speaking to journalists in the palatial Ministry of Information, Mr Draskovic thanked US Congressmen, British MPs and French deputies who had "stood up for truth and opposed the law of the jungle" by opposing the war.
He said he represented the government of Yugoslavia in finding a positive sign in President Clinton's speech on Thursday, in which the US leader called for a peaceful resolution which would preserve Kosovo within Serbia.
"We accepted today this offer of President Clinton," Mr Draskovic said. "We accepted it yesterday and we have insisted upon it since the start of the Yugoslav crisis."
Missiles and bread, page 11; Russia severs all contact with NATO, Muted response in Germany, Embassy offices sacked, page 12; Serbian collapse would create void, page 13