SERBIA launched a major search yesterday for war crimes fugitive General Ratko Mladic, sending scores of special police to comb through a western town on orders from Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor.

Masked special police, backed by helicopters, searched a western Serbian town today as part of a stepped up hunt for UN war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, witnesses and media said.

An elite Serbian police unit has stepped up the search for top war crimes fugitive General Ratko Mladic after government officials, faced with Western pressure, dropped their reluctance and ordered his arrest.