A NATO missile struck a civilian bus on Saturday (May 1) on a bridge 12 miles north of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, killing several dozen people, including many children. A rescue worker on the scene, who refused to give his name, claimed he had counted 39 bodies, the Associated Press reported. TiM's other sources in Serbia said the bus had over 60 passengers on board when it was bombed.
«I was in my garden working when I heard the sound of a plane flying,» Rajko Maksic, a Serb farmer, told the Associated Press. «I turned towards the sound. I saw a bus on the road and suddenly it exploded. I heard screams and I came to look.»
The attack occurred in the village of Luzane at about 1 p.m. local time, cutting the vehicle in two and sending part of it plunging off the bridge, which was damaged but not destroyed. About an hour later, the bridge came under attack again. An emergency services doctor was injured, the Tanjug news wire said.
Independent journalists on the scene saw about 15 bodies trapped in the charred remnants of the part of the bus which fell off the bridge. Most have been burned beyond recognition and were horribly mangled from the blast. The portion of the bus that remained on the bridge was still burning more than an hour after the attack.