(dpa) - Belgrade was on Friday morning cleaning up the debris from the horror of the night before, when Serb mobs stoned, ransacked and torched embassies, businesses and cars.
One person was killed in violence Thursday night and more than 150, 50 of them police, were injured. The charred body found in the smouldering United States embassy has not been identified.
Firefighters had to douse the ground and first floors of the consular part of the embassy compound to put the blaze out.
Also damaged or defaced by the mob were the embassies of Germany, Croatia, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia and Canada. Police reacted weakly and late, drawing protests from foreign capitals.
The mob, mostly young people resembling the typical hooligan sport fans, also demolished and torched McDonald's restaurants in downtown Belgrade and looted Nike, Benetton and other brand name stores.
Police had to intervene to protect the B92 media house, which was branded by nationalist politicians as anti-patriotic over its critical reporting of Serbia's course.
The violence exploded on the margin of a massive protest at Kosovo's independence and the Western support of it. In the end, the peaceful rally of 200,000 people was thoroughly overshadowed by the raging of several groups of hundreds of hooligans.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday and by Friday nearly two dozen countries, including most of the big Western countries, had recognized it.
Belgrade has pulled its ambassadors home for consultations from each country that has recognized the "false country" on its soil.
The EU was setting up a mission to help the new country get started, which has enraged Belgrade and led to a freeze of Serbia's approach to EU membership.
Before the attacks, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and most other speakers delivered incendiary accusations that the West was trying to rob Serbia of its territory and trick it into submission.
Following the attacks on the missions and the looting, Kostunica remained silent, refusing to condemn the perpetrators.
A spokesman of his Democratic Party of Serbia however dismissed Washington's protest over the torching of its embassy, saying that the young people were only reacting to US recognition of Kosovo.
The most recent violence was preceded by similar attacks throughout the week since Kosovo declared its split from Serbia.
Officials from Kostunica's nationalist bloc in the ruling coalition however remained defensive.
"They (NATO) broke our whole country, what's a few windows compared to that," Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilic said earlier, commenting on Slovenia's protest at the ransacking of its embassy.
Some observers estimate that the hooligans operated with the tacit approval of the nationalists and that there would be more pressure on the already very strained diplomatic relations of Serbia and the West.