Incident is highly unusual, as millions of tourists safely vacation in the country’s beaches each year
VLORA, July 29 – Three beach-goers were killed at a resort in southwestern Albania after a teenager opened fire with an automatic weapon on a group of people that had assaulted him earlier in the day. All those who died were bystanders.
The shooting has shocked Albania, where such an incident had not happened in more than a decade and where millions of domestic and foreign tourist have safely vacationed in the country’s beaches for years.
Police said they had arrested the alleged shooter, a teenager who media reports said was angry about an early confrontation with a group of men who had sexually harassed his sister.
The shooting happened at a small sea-side resort in Radhima Beach, about 15 miles south of the port city of Vlora, which was the hotbed of Albania’s 1997 anarchy and many weapons looted from army depots remain hidden with the population.
The bystanders included a 17-year-old boy from Fier and a 53-year-old Albanian woman who lived in Germany and had returned to Albania to vacation.
The third victim was a 34-year-old man with a criminal record, police said, but it appeared he was not the intended target.
Police special forces made several other arrests as part of their investigation, including the resort’s owners, who are changed with not reporting a crime, because they did not call the police when the first fight broke out.
Witnesses and those involved told police a young man had asked a young women for Facebook address so he could befriend her, as they sat in neighboring tables in a beach bar. The woman refused. Words were exchanged and she called her brother on the phone to tell him she was being harassed. The brother came armed with a knife and lightly wounded one of the men, who then beat him up.
He left to return with his own friends – armed with an AK-47 automatic rifle. The shooter, who is still at large, lost control of the weapon and shot three bystanders who were not involved with the original argument.
