Two fugitive gunmen hijacked a bus today in northern Albania, killing a policeman and a passenger and wounding several others before being arrested by police, media and police reports said.
The two men were travelling as passengers in the bus when it came to a police roadblock - a routine procedure in some crime-riden parts of the country.
They jumped up with grenades in their hands and warned other passengers not to move, shooting and killing a policeman who tried to open the bus door.
Many passengers escaped through the windows in the commotion but the hijackers gained control of the bus and drove for 10 kilometres until they were stopped by police at the town of Rubik, some 50 kms north of Tirana.
Police and reporters at the scene said the men started shooting with Kalashnikovs and asked for a child as a hostage to guarantee their safety. Special forces moved towards the bus and snipers took position on nearby buildings.
One of the gunmen was wounded and surrendered to police.
"Some 10 minutes after the first wounded hijacker handed himself over, police threw a smoke bomb inside the bus and moved in to neutralize the second one," a reporter for News 24 televion channel said live from the scene.
The hijacking is the first ever to happen in Albania.
In 1999, an Albanian hijacked a bus in Greece and drove it to Albania. A sniper killed the hijacker and a Greek hostage was killed by mistake by a member of the local police.
Some 200,000 guns and ammunition are estimated to exist in civilian hands in Albania, most of them looted from army depots in 1997, when the collapse of pyramid investment schemes caused months-long riots and anarchy.