Kidnappers and police in Macedonian standoff

Tensions soared in Macedonia today as police shot dead two ethnic Albanians and gunmen threatened to kill several people abducted from a bus.

A former rebel was shot dead as police responded to a drive-by shooting, officers said. The other man was killed in the ethnic Albanian village of Zerovljane. Few details were immediately available.

Meanwhile, gunmen threatened to execute five bus passengers they took hostage on a main road nearby.

Special police, some wearing masks, used armoured cars to block off roads and villages in the region, 40 miles west of the capital Skopje.

In a joint statement, the EU, the US and Nato strongly condemned the hostage taking.

A Nato official said the gunmen were threatening to kill the hostages, all Macedonian Slavs, unless three Albanians arrested over the murder of two Macedonian policemen earlier this week are released.

Nato forces from the EU’s Monitoring Mission were present in the region and were observing the situation, he said.