Serbian media in shock

Serbia's press is shaken by the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and the government statement blaming the Belgrade-based Zemun clan for the killing.

The leading pro-government daily Politika sums up the nation's fears with a front-page headline: "The shooting of the prime minister poses a challenge to the country's democratic and political stability."

"What else awaits us?," asks the widely-read Glas Javnosti.

Another popular daily, Danas, proclaims in a front-page headline: "Constitutional order under threat" - while Borba states its concern for the fate of democracy.

A bold headline in the evening Ekspres screams out the government claim that "The Zemun clan murdered Djindjic".

The daily is one of many that asks whether security around the prime minister was tight enough. It states that Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic "claimed there was no reason for special security measures".

Operation Whirlwind

Borba's back page states: "Alone against everyone: the prime minister could not believe he might be a target."

Politika describes Djindjic as an "energetic politician" whose death is "a great loss for Serbia and the Serbian political scene".

The spiral of violence and political murders, in which politicians and criminals play the danse macabre hand in hand, has long been a characteristic of Serbia Croatia's Vjesnik

"Flowers are laid for the murdered premier. The streets are empty, the city mourns", it reports, showing pictures of people carrying flowers and lighting candles.

The mass circulation Blic reports on the international reaction to the killing under the headline "Statesmen shocked".

"Everybody has lost out," it says. It also carries the names and pictures of the suspects.

The Nacional newspaper says police are seeking three assassins and more that 20 members of the Zemun clan in an operation codenamed "Whirlwind".

"Citizens of Belgrade are in a state of shock and disbelief, all cultural events are cancelled," it adds, also noting that the killing caused chaos and paralysed traffic on city streets.

Regional fears

Glas Javnosti quotes Belgraders as commenting: "We hope somebody will say: Djindjic was right, all honour to him!"

Ekspres quotes one politician lamenting the "national tragedy" of Djindjic's death. Another is quoted calling for Serbs to pull together to prevent a "bigger tragedy" - the collapse of the state.

In neighbouring Croatia, the daily Vjesnik carries a headline "Serbia between crime and politics".

"The spiral of violence and political murders, in which politicians and criminals play the danse macabre hand in hand, has long been a characteristic of Serbia."

The Croatian tabloid Vecernji list asks: "Will the Serbian premier's murder endanger regional stability?"

In Slovenia, Dnevnik points to suspicions that the premier's bodyguards "logistically supported the premier's political assassination".

Its headline declares starkly: "Back to the beginning."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.