Thousands of Chinese students angered by the accidental bombing of a Chinese embassy in Belgrade marched on UK and American embassies in Beijing for a second day on Sunday.

"Kill Americans", "Get Out American Pigs" many students screamed, as they hurled rocks, broke into the U.S. embassy compound and burnt the American flag in retaliation at the NATO missile which missed its target and killed a Chinese embassy worker and three journalists in overnight raids on Saturday.

British and Americans in Beijing and Shanghai were being warned to stay inside by their respective governments and Chinese media did little to dampen the fury, accusing NATO of purposely "spilling Chinese blood". China’s ambassador the UN called it a "barbarian act" and a "crime of war". The diplomatic fallout from the mistake could haunt NATO for weeks and possibly months to come.

But while the NATO alliance rushed to bury the incident as a "tragic mistake" continued to press on with the air raid campaign over Yugoslavia concentrating mainly on telecommunications targets. US Defence Secretary William Cohen and CIA director George Tenet blamed the mistake on "faulty information" that led to the "targeting of this facility".

Defence Department spokesman Ken Bacon said: "There is no such thing as clean combat. I don't anticipate there will be a pause. In fact, I see that there will be broadening attacks."

The official Serbian news agency Tanjug reported that attacks on the town of Uzice, 130 km (80 miles) south of Belgrade, had destroyed the main post office, and all the phone lines in the area were down. Serb television RTS reported attacks on Valjevo, home of the Krusik pipe factory, which NATO believes also produces munitions.