2 Killed in Albanian Protest Over Investment Schemes

Anti-government protesters attacked riot police Monday, trapping and beating some officers and stripping them of uniforms, guns and shields that were set ablaze in a bonfire in this southern port.

Police fought with the crowd of 5,000 to 7,000 rock-throwing demonstrators in the worst rioting during a month of unrest that began over the collapse of investment schemes. Two people were killed and 81 injured, state TV said.

Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi went on national television to urge his countrymen, for decades the poorest in Europe, not to join unrest “that aims at pushing Albania into economic collapse.”

But popular rage in this city, the flash point of riots over the get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, proved nearly impossible to contain Monday when the police were attacked. Police responded by firing their guns in the air. Some stood on the roofs of buildings and threw stones down on the crowd.

State TV listed the dead as Artur Rustemi and 53-year-old Maliq Banushi, but gave no further details. A nurse at Vlore hospital said surgeons failed to save the life of a 30-year-old demonstrator who was shot. The second victim, who she said was a man of 51, died of heart failure before reaching the hospital.