Albania shooting

A shooting outside Albania’s capital that reportedly was linked to political party activists before a parliamentary election this week killed one person and injured four others yesterday, according to police and media reports. A police statement said that an officer was among the injured after she tried to break up an argument in the central city of Elbasan. Several people have been detained, including the suspected gunman. Local media reported that the victim and one of the injured people worked at the governing Socialist Party’s local office while the alleged attacker is a bodyguard of a centre-right main opposition Democratic Party politician. Another two of the injured were allegedly bodyguards for the same Democratic Party politician. Albanians will elect 140 lawmakers in a vote which is considered as key to convince the 27-nation European Union bloc to agree on starting full negotiations on potentially admitting the small Balkan nation as a member.