It was a bloody Sunday in the north of Kosovo, near the Serbian Orthodox Church monastery of Banjska. At least four men were gunned down - one Kosovo police officer and three local Serbs, with some news outlets reporting that the total killed has risen to five. 

It was a firefight that started when a group of Serbs established a barricade on the road that connects an area in north Kosovo with Serbia and that has a Serbian majority. Three armed patrols of Pristina police were soon ambushed at the barricade when they arrived to check what was happening. One police officer was killed and another wounded. 

After a firefight, attackers left the area but were soon spotted close to the Banjska monastery. Footage released later by the Pristina authorities (see above) showed a group of men in green military combat fatigues sitting inside the monastery yard. One of them was limping, following the initial firefight. 

READ MORE

60 million watched Zhang Zhilei fight

Türkiye raises interest rates to 30%

Why has the UK frozen interest rates?

A group of Kosovo Serbs positioned trucks on a bridge into the village, shooting at police who approached them, before the battle moved to the nearby monastery, according to accounts by both Kosovo police and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Kosovan authorities say around 30 heavily armed Serbs were involved in the firefight. The gunmen had left the monastery by night, the Serbian Orthodox Church said, though it was unclear where they went.

According to Pristina police shot dead four of the attackers, recapturing the monastery, and at least six were arrested in two different locations. Pristina authorities immediately pointed fingers at Belgrade, accusing the Serbian leadership of organizing the provocation and equipping the attackers. 

Some Pristina sources went even further, claiming that in some footage of a deputy leader of the main Serbian party in Kosovo can be seen wearing a uniform and a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. They also claimed that those were Serbian special military and police operators from central Serbia.

Those claims were dismissed by the Serbian authorities, with Vucic, addressing the nation on Sunday evening, giving his version of events. Vucic confirmed that the uniformed men were Serbs, but that those were local Serbs from the region.

He denied any involvement in the events and accused Kosovo Albanian authorities of "unnecessary killings." 

Three days after the shootout, the situation in the area remains tense and volatile. Wednesday was declared a day of mourning in Serbia, while Serbs in the north of Kosovo extended it to three days. Kosovo Albanian authorities pledged a full investigation into the case.

The violence has prompted new international concern over stability in Kosovo, a region with an ethnic Albanian majority which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade has never recognized Kosovo's independence. Around 50,000 ethnic Serbs live in the north and largely reject the authority of Pristina.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday