Footage recorded during the protest in Tirana shows the moment State Police officers fired tear gas into the courtyard near the headquarters of the Democratic Party, where some of the protesters had moved after tensions in the capital.
What the footage shows
The video shows police forces using tear gas near the Democratic Party headquarters building, at a moment when the situation had escalated into open clashes.
The protest had been accompanied by tensions, while some of the protesters had moved toward the outer premises of the headquarters.
Clashes between protesters and police
The incident was recorded after clashes between protesters and law enforcement in the capital.
The footage captures only part of the episode, while the full sequence of what preceded the use of gas is not made clear by the video alone.
The official version from the State Police
In its official response, the State Police claimed that officers had been attacked with Molotov cocktails by masked individuals.
According to this version, those individuals then entered the outer premises of the Democratic Party headquarters.
The use of gas and open questions
Police claim that the use of tear gas was a response to the alleged Molotov attack.
However, the published footage clearly confirms the use of gas near the Democratic Party headquarters, while the claims about the circumstances that led to this action remain, at this stage, part of the official version.
The incident near the Democratic Party headquarters further heightens tensions over how the protest in Tirana was managed.
The footage of the tear gas intervention is expected to fuel public debate over the proportionality of the police response and the transparency of institutions about what happened on the ground.