This is bad...
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Friday May 7 7:10 PM ET
NATO Air Raid Hits China's Belgrade Embassy
BELGRADE (Reuters) - A NATO air raid hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade late Friday, causing many casualties, the Yugoslav Beta news agency said Saturday.
''NATO aircraft hit the Chinese embassy building in New Belgrade shortly before midnight,'' the agency said. ''People are being pulled out from the rubble.''
''The embassy was hit as four strong detonations were heard,'' the agency said. ''Explosions were heard in the wider Belgrade region and in New Belgrade.''
In Brussels, NATO said it was aware of the reports but could not confirm or deny them at present.
The blasts came hours after Belgrade was plunged into darkness, with new NATO raids ending a three-day reprieve from bombing.
One resident in central Belgrade said smoke was coming from a Yugoslav army building, which had not been hit in previous NATO strikes, while the Federal Interior Ministry was also reported to have been hit.
Belgrade's Radio Pancevo also reported several powerful blasts in the city center, the site of official buildings targeted in previous attacks.
Belgrade's Studio B television said one building of the army's general headquarters had been hit. It said that the Federal Police building had been hit for the third time Friday.
Radio Pancevo, quoting Belgrade residents, said that the city's police building had been hit for the first time during the seven-week old bombing campaign.
Residents in central Belgrade said the detonations had been heard shortly before midnight (2200 GMT) from an area close to the city's main railway station, which is also close to one of the Yugoslav army's headquarters.
The lights failed shortly after air raid warning sirens went off at 9:10 p.m. (1910 GMT).
Flashes came from the direction of Obrenovac, the site of a major power plant to the south-west of the city which supplies electricity to the capital and much of Serbia.
Heavy anti-aircraft fire resonated in the capital, which had been spared NATO attacks for three straight days.
Obrenovac was among key power plants targeted in weekend NATO strikes which used special graphite bombs, crippling much of the national power grid.
Radio Pancevo reported blasts at three major power stations at Resnik, Bezanija and Lestane, located in districts around Belgrade.
The three plants, which distribute electricity produced at Obrenovac, had been hit. There were no immediate details of casualties.
The radio said the central towns of Uzice and Cacak and Valjevo, southwest of Belgrade, had suffered fluctuations in their power supply. The town of Kraljevo also had no electricity but expected it back soon.
Serbia's second city Novi Sad and Sombor, both in the north, lost power briefly but were without water, Radio Pancevo reported.
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