The Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia confirmed to news agency Tanjug that the instructors of that service were detained on Sunday evening in Kosovo.

Tanjug was told earlier by the Office for Kosovo and Metohija that eight members of the Mountain Rescue Service (GSS) were detained while returning from Brezovica, after they conducted a three-day training on rescue from the avalanche in the municipality of Strpce on the Sara mountain.

The Office said that the arrest was carried out by members of the special Kosovo police unit of the ROSU, and that long pipes were pointed at the instructors, and that during the arrest their vehicles were searched.

Persons who were in the branded vehicle of the Serbian Rescue Service were brought to the police, while remained instructors, who were in three private vehicles, could continue their trip.

The instructors were released after a short stay at the police station in Urosevac, where they gave the statement. They were told that they could not move in a branded vehicle of the Serbian institution in a "foreign country", according to Belgrade based daily Blic.

The daily recalls that the instructors were going to Kosovo and before and until now never had any problems, and that this was the first time that they have encountered this type of inconvenience, which was incomprehensible to them, because they were in Brezovica to conduct training for saving people's lives, say in the KiM Office.

The van of the GSS, according to the Office for KiM, has entered Kosovo regularly, through the administrative crossing Jarinje, after detailed inspection and the equipment check, and none of the police officers indicated at the administrative crossing that there could be any problems.

The KiM Office for Tanjug say that the Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia did not violate any regulation or agreement on freedom of movement, and that in this case it is a matter of excessive use of force and unprovoked maltreatment of members of the Mountain Service, and that all relevant international institutions will be notified.

"This treatment of a group of rescuers is another confirmation of Pristina's resolve to continue along the path of escalation and closing of the door to dialogue. This is the most violent demonstration of a force aimed at intimidating Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija," the Office for Kosovo and Metohija said.