Kumanovo, Macedonia - Shooting broke out for a second day Sunday in north Macedonia as concern mounted in Europe after clashes between police and unidentified gunmen in the restive Balkan nation left at least six officers dead.
As crisis-hit Macedonia declared two days of mourning Sunday, the European Union warned of the danger of escalation in a part of the country hit by an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001.
Officials said an unknown number of gunmen have been killed in the clashes blamed by the government on fighters from across the border. One in four Macedonians is an ethnic Albanian.
Hospital sources in Skopje confirmed that a sixth police officer had died from wounds suffered in battles with the group of still-unknown gunmen that erupted at dawn Saturday in the city of Kumanovo.
"A policeman has died while another one is in critical condition," a hospital source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The government said earlier that five police officers had been killed and some 30 injured in the violence in Kumanovo, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Skopje.
"There are victims among the terrorists but for the time being we cannot give the exact number," Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska told reporters late Saturday.
Sporadic fire from automatic weapons could be heard overnight and on Sunday as helicopters patrolled overhead, the state-run MIA news agency reported, citing witnesses.
"The situation on the ground is still very risky," Jankuloska said.
AFP
