In pictures: Kosovo independence

Kosovo Albanians are celebrating their parliament's declaration of independence from Serbia.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci read out the declaration, which was then approved by a unanimous show of hands.

Free beer was on offer in a street near the parliament in Pristina for thousands of revellers who braved bracing temperatures in the city.

The celebrations got under way on Saturday and went on late into the night before resuming on Sunday. Many Kosovans waved flags of neighbouring Albania.

There was celebration in Albania too, with the country's national colours of red and black featuring highly as locals gathered in the main square in the capital, Tirana.

Kosovo Albanian children danced and waved flags in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France.

And there was celebration elsewhere in Europe, with Kosovo Albanian expatriates beeping car horns and waving flags in cities such as Brussels and here, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

But for Serbians, like these who protested in Paris, the move is seen as disastrous. Serbians have long seen Kosovo as the "cradle of Serbia".

In Belgrade, youths threw stones and the group burned an EU flag outside the US embassy in the wake of the declaration.

This policeman was injured as riot police clashed with an estimated 1,000 demonstrators in the Serbian capital.

And tensions were high in the ethnically-divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica, where French soldiers boosted security by the Ibar river which splits Kosovo Serbian and Albanian areas.

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