KOSOVSKA MITROVICA — Serbs protesting Kosovo’s independence for a fifth straight day today attacked U.N. police guarding a key bridge in northern Kosovo with stones, glass bottles, and firecrackers.

Serbia’s prime minister appealed for calm as the European Union condemned rioting in the capital Belgrade overnight when demonstrators attacked the American embassy and other Western mission. America and EU heavyweights Britain, France, and Germany have formally recognized Kosovo.

President Tadic of Serbia called an emergency meeting of the national security council, saying the riots that engulfed the capital overnight must “never happen again.”

In Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, demonstrators waved Serbian flags and chanted “Kosovo is ours!” Police tried to keep protesters off the Kosovska Mitrovica bridge over the Ibar River. The bridge, which divides Kosovo Serbs from ethnic Albanians, has long been a flashpoint of tensions in Kosovo’s restive north

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia on Sunday. The province, which is 90% ethnic Albanian, has not been under Serbia’s control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has governed Kosovo since.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said today the violence was reminiscent of the bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo by a former Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbian police said one person died and more than 150 people were injured in unrest yesterday, which erupted after a state-sponsored rally. Nearly 200 people were arrested and 90 shops ransacked, police said in a statement.

Yesterday, nearly 200,000 demonstrated in downtown Belgrade against Kosovo independence. Rioters stormed the American Embassy and set fire to offices and police guardhouses on the sidewalk in front of the building. The nearby Croatian embassy was also attacked, and a residential building next door was damaged by fire.

Firefighters extinguished the blazes and found a charred body inside the American mission’s consular section.

Today, a McDonald’s restaurant in the city center was still smoldering from the fire that torched much of the interior. Shops put up plastic sheeting and glass panels to cover their smashed front windows. Several sports goods stores and other shops had been cleaned out by looters leaving display windows completely bare.

The White House also strongly criticized the Serbian government, saying the American Embassy in Belgrade “was attacked by thugs” and Serb police did not do enough to stop it. In a conference call with reporters from Air Force One, a presidential spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said America had expressed its “concern and displeasure” to the Serbian government.