Blast Hits Police Station in Macedonian Capital

Bit-Pazar Police station was attacked with an explosiv device on Friday night

An explosion hit a police station in the Macedonian capital late on Friday in what appeared to be the second attack on police this week. A senior police official said a device had exploded about 23:30hours outside the police station in Bitpazar, a mainly ethnic Albanian quarter, a few kilometres from Skopje city centre.

"No one has been hurt," the official told the media, adding the blast caused some damage to the building.

It follows a machine gun and mortar assault on a police station north of the western city of Tetovo on Tuesday, in an ominous throwback to 2001 when clashes between state security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas pushed the Balkan country to the brink of civil war.

The National Security Council convened on Thursday, July 14, and discussed the security situation in Macedonia, as well as Kondovo, a rundown village on the outskirts of Skopje where since late last year a group of armed ethnic Albanians has been holed up, refusing access to police.

They have made few clear demands other than amnesty for past crimes. Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski described them as known criminals and called on the police to "take all necessary measures to bring them to justice."

Source: Reuters via Yahoo.