NATO troops placed metal fences and barbed wire barriers in an attempt to strengthen their positions in a northern Kosovo town today after clashing with local Serbs.

Thirty soldiers from the military alliance were wounded after facing rioting locals in the majority ethnic Serb region of North Kosovo.

The Nato force sealed off Zvecan’s municipality building, where Western forces have been stationed given local resentment of the region’s inclusion in Kosovo, a statelet created by Nato following its war to break up what remained of Yugoslavia in 1999.