Senior officials of the Albanian political parties convinced locals to remove the block from the entry to the village of Aracinovo in which a major shootout occurred earlier today. Relatives, fellow villagers and fellow party members of the persons that got injured and killed during the incident have returned to their homes and the situation in the village has been restored to normalcy to some extent, A1 TV reports.

The Interior Ministry said the incidents in Aracinovo started when six gunmen prevented people from voting in the village of Grusino. A mobile team of the Alpha police unit that headed for Grusino was intercepted at the entry of Aracinovo by four vehicles that opened fire at it. Ivo Kotevski, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said police were fired at by heavy weapons, machine-guns and automatic rifles.

Police arrested nine people, while 44-year-old Naser Ajvazi got killed in the shooting.