A bunch of villagers on a tractor reenergized the crowd with their attempt to drive up the Parliament steps and smash through the front doors. When the villagers discovered that the steps were too steep, the battered yellow tractor then simply began ramming the building itself.

Dozens of teenagers climbed through the windows in the south wing and encouraged the crowd to continue their fight.

"No retreat," the crowd chanted, all the while screaming in agony from the wafting tear gas that stung their eyes. The crowd seemed propelled by a suicidal sense that the agony wrought by Milosevic had to end now, and thousands seemed ready to make a sacrifice.

One man fell over with an apparent heart attack; another went into seizures. One man took a blow to the head from an uprooted lamppost; countless others were struck by rubber bullets. Wave after wave of ambulances arrived continually to pull out the wounded. Two people were killed and 65 injured in the rioting, according to Tanjug, a government news agency now controlled by the opposition.

Hundreds stormed side entrances of the Parliament and eventually lit fires inside the building to drive out police. Several police and state vehicles were flipped upside down and burned.

All the while, a rave party was underway in front of the National Bank on Boulevard Revolution, a mere 100 yards from Parliament.

Branko Ilic, a key organizer of the Otpor, or "Resistance," student movement, stood on a makeshift stage where a wall of speakers blasted dance music. The black smoke of the burning Parliament building mixed with white tear gas to set a dramatic backdrop to the dance scene. While some danced, others fought.

The dozens of police inside Parliament gave up after battling for less than an hour. Protesters soon emerged with their war booty: blue helmets, police shields, bulletproof vests and a tear gas gun.

One man emerged with an antique coat rack. "This will look fantastic in my hallway," he proclaimed in a postmodern mixing of rioting and decorating.

The crowd pummeled a number of police and even lit fire to some, but none were reported killed.

By nightfall, a party atmosphere descended upon Belgrade, especially in front of Parliament, where revelers carried out furniture and anything else useful they could find.

Recent Stories