A woman was reportedly shot dead and an elderly man was seriously injured when soccer fans in the Bosnian town of Mostar fired their guns in the air after Croatia's triumph on Saturday night.

Mostar was the scene of bitter fighting during Bosnia's civil war and remains largely divided along ethnic lines between Muslims and Croats.

According to the Onasa news agency, the 25-year-old woman was killed by a bullet fired from the Croat-dominated western side of the river Neretva while she was sitting at a restaurant on the mainly-Muslim eastern bank.

The other death occurred when a 24-year old man fell off the back of a truck in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Saturday night as he and his friends celebrated, the Croatian news agency Hina reported.

'Who says we can't be world champions?'

In Zagreb, where 30,000 flag-waving revellers turned out to mark the victory, several shops and tram windows were smashed and 40 people were reportedly admitted to hospitals with slight injuries.

Fans congregated on Zagreb's main square

One report said the crowd which massed in the city's central Ban Jelacic square was the biggest since Croatian independence was recognised in 1992.

The fans chanted: "We've put three past the Germans, now we're going to put five past the French."

Others shouted defiantly: "Who says we can't be world champions?"

Boost to prestige on and off the pitch

The Hina agency also reported that President Franjo Tudjman described the win over Germany as a boost to national confidence and to Croatia's standing in the world.

"It is good being triumphant, and because we won in the creation of the independent Croatia, because we were the victors of the homeland war when they attacked us, and now they will be more cautious towards us on the sports field too," he was quoted as saying.

Mr Tudjman, who attended the match in Lyon, reportedly congratulated the players on the "historic victory" and said he would attend the World Cup final.

Hina also said that the German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel sent congratulations to his Croatian counterpart, Mate Granic. "The Croatian team played excellently and deservedly won," Mr Kinkel said.

Upset of the tournament

The win over the three-times world champions rates as the biggest upset so far at the World Cup. Not only have Croatia reached the World Cup semi-finals at the first attempt but they have inflicted the biggest World Cup defeat on Germany since 1954.