Wounded Rescued From Croatia’s Battered Vukovar

Relief workers evacuated hundreds of sick and wounded Wednesday from a bombed-out hospital in the Croatian city of Vukovar, where they were trapped for weeks by a Serbian siege.

As they were taken from the shattered city, the wounded saw horrifying glimpses of the siege’s carnage. There were claims of atrocities--including one report, which could not be independently confirmed, that many children were slain.

Hundreds of bodies littered the streets. Much of the city has been leveled by the fighting.

Serbian commanders in Vukovar threatened to push on to take Osijek, the capital of the eastern province of Slavonia and a city of 140,000 people. Croatian Radio said five people died and 60 were wounded there Wednesday.

Thousands of people were fleeing Vukovar, a city of 40,000 along the Danube River.

Unconfirmed reports of atrocities have surfaced since most of the Croatian defenders surrendered over the weekend.

In one such report, Serbian media quoted a photographer as saying the corpses of 41 ethnic Serbian children were found in plastic bags in a school in neighboring Borovo Naselje.

In another case, a Serbian volunteer told journalists that he saw comrades kill up to 80 Croatian fighters after Vukovar’s capture and that they included men trying to surrender.

A European Community spokesman said 19 ambulances and 20 buses loaded with patients left Vukovar and were believed bound for Sremska Mitrovica, a Serbian town near Belgrade. About 60 of the 400 sick and wounded remained behind, too weak to travel.

After taking Vukovar, the Serb-dominated army took control of the hospital, and Croatian and army negotiators declared it a “neutral area” under the auspices of the International Red Cross.

Meanwhile, U.N. special envoy Cyrus R. Vance met the Croatian foreign minister and prime minister in Zagreb to discuss deploying a U.N. peacekeeping force.

The United Nations has said it would not send any force into Croatia unless a cease-fire is firmly established.