Voters in Kosovo’s volatile north are heading to the polls again on Sunday, as NATO-led peacekeepers boost their presence in the region.

Authorities ordered a re-run of a local election at three polling centres in the Serb part of Mitrovica.

Masked men attacked several polling stations during the original ballot earlier this month.

Mitrovica is split between a majority of ethnic Serbs in the north of the city, and ethnic Albanians in the south.

Suspected hardline ethnic Serbs are thought to be responsible for smashing ballot boxes in the original vote.

The election had been organised by ethnic Albanians.

The Serb-run part of the city has defied ethnic Albanian rule since the end of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Serb participation in Sunday’s vote is a key part of an EU-brokered deal to normalise relations between Kosovo and Serbia.