Shots Fired at Moscow Embassy

Machine gun bullets were fired Sunday at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, scene of repeated protests against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, but there were no reports of injuries.

The gunman was also armed with two grenade launchers, which were left at the scene after he fled in a white jeep that had been stolen from police earlier.

Associated Press photographers, who heard the shooting, estimated at least 10 shots were fired as frightened bystanders hurled themselves on the ground. CBS News in Moscow reported that at least eight bullets struck the embassy.

An embassy spokesman, who declined to be named, said nobody in the embassy had been injured, but declined to comment further.

An eyewitness, who refused to give his name, said the jeep stopped and a man in a ski mask and camouflage fatigues got out and tried to fire the grenade launchers. When neither launcher worked, the man opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle, he said.

Police officers on foot chased after the vehicle after the shooting, but it escaped. One officer told AP he had opened fire at the fleeing vehicle with his pistol.

The police jeep had been hijacked earlier by three young men, said a police officer, who refused to give his name. The Interfax news agency said the vehicle had been found abandoned near the embassy.

Scores of police officers and members of the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, ringed the front of the embassy after the attack. The embassy is located on the Garden Ring, one of Moscow's main streets.

People protesting the NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia have been demonstrating outside the embassy for the past four days. There were scores of arrests Thursday when protesters, mostly gang members and skin heads, hurled scores of bottles, rocks and other objects at the building.