Would-Be Albanian Refugees Set Fire to Train During Day of Rioting; 2 Killed

Two Albanians were burned to death when frustrated would-be refugees set fire to a train at the end of a day of rioting in three northern Albanian cities, news reports said Sunday.

Albania’s official ATA news agency said the rioting occurred Friday in the cities of Shengjin, Lezhe and Shkoder and was reported Saturday to the Parliament.

The riots began after security forces prevented crowds of people from seizing ships in the port of Shengjin, ATA said.

About 4,000 people, many from Shkoder, began smashing windows when they could not board ships to leave the country.

The crowds stoned police and broke windows in government offices in Lezhe as they passed through on their way home, ATA said. Windows also were broken in five stores in Shkoder, it said.

Many of the Shkoder residents returned by train, and as it pulled into the station, mobs of people “set fire to the last railway coaches. The flames swept three railway cars and two citizens, so far unidentified, were (fatally) burned,” ATA said.

It said two people were detained but did not give details. It also did not mention injuries.

Tens of thousands of Albanians have fled the tiny Balkan country in recent months in search of a better life abroad. Many of them have commandeered ships at the country’s Adriatic ports and sailed to Italy.

On April 2, two days after the country’s first multi-party elections since the 1920s, security forces in Shkoder shot to death four people who were protesting alleged Communist vote-rigging.