A vacation hard to forget for six young people from Venosa (Italy), who after their university exams decided to spend a few days of relaxation in Albania. But the vacation lasted less than a day.
One of them told what happened:
“We arrived in Albania, in Tirana, on July 29. That same evening, around 9:30 PM, after taking a shower, we left the apartment we had rented to go out for dinner. There were six of us. As soon as we got out on the street, one of us went into a small shop to buy a bottle of water.
At that moment, a group of local boys approached us and asked where we were from. We simply replied that we were Italian. We started walking towards Skanderbeg Square, the main square, when this group – about 20 very young boys, between 16 and 18 years old – started following us.
They started throwing water, bottles and even stones at us. At first we tried to ignore them and continue on our way, because we had just arrived – it was the first night of our vacation – and because we were in a foreign country and wanted to avoid any problems.”
"The situation suddenly worsened," says the young man from Venosa. "They surrounded one of us and demanded money, directly threatening him with a knife."
At that moment, the people who were there began to flee towards the police officers who were in the area, while this group continued to chase us, throwing stones and hitting those of us who had remained behind with fists and sticks.
"Almost everyone managed to escape, except for one. They stopped him, punched him, knocked him to the ground, and continued to beat him even when he was lying down."
But according to him, there was more:
"Something incredible and very serious was the behavior of the first police officers who were there. Some of us desperately asked for help, but they pretended not to see anything."
We asked a passerby for the local police emergency number to call for help, but we received no answer.
"Fortunately, other police officers then intervened, managed to remove the aggressors and called an ambulance. One of us suffered wounds and injuries to various parts of the body and received medical attention at the scene."
After that, the young people decided to return to Italy and started looking for a flight.
“We thought about our injured friend and thought it would be best to take him to the hospital in Venosa. So, at 6 a.m. on July 30, we took the first available flight home. After arriving in Venosa, the friend who had suffered the most serious injuries was seen and treated in the hospital.”
He concludes the story: "It's better to endure the blows than to react and risk a stab wound that could be fatal."
