
The director of Gjirokastra Police, Ardian Çipa , came out in a statement for journalists to give more precise details about the accident in the early hours of the morning in Këlcyra where 8 people lost their lives.
Čipa explained that the "Benz" type car was spotted for the first time around 02:20 am by the Këlcyra police patrol as it was moving fast.
The operatives called on the driver to stop and the latter did so, not to communicate with the police, but to turn around and move quickly again, this time towards Përmet. The operatives are in pursuit of the car.
About 1 hour and 30 minutes after they lost visual contact with the car, the police patrol asked different citizens if they saw the vehicle moving.
But their answer was negative and therefore they have started an inspection in the area. This inspection led them to the accident site, where the car was also discovered near the Vjosa river.
"Around 2:20 a.m. on April 2, in the vicinity of Këlcyra, the foot patrol of the Këlcyra police station came across a vehicle that was moving at a speed exceeding the permitted limits. In an attempt to signal him to stop, the vehicle immediately turned around and started towards the city of Përmet. The police patrol, which was on duty to control the territory as well as the Përmet-Këlcyre axis with its own vehicle, tried to take visual control of the vehicle and followed it to the vicinity of the scene. He immediately informed the operating room and transmitted all the information about the suspicious vehicle which had left at high speed in the direction of Përmet. At around 03:55, since the vehicle was not found, the patrol with a vehicle moved towards Përmet, making contact with various citizens and asking them whether or not they had seen such a vehicle which had fled. with speed. Since he did not receive any information, he started inspecting the entire area and exactly in the place where we are located where the accident happened, he saw signs of a road accident and then he was able to locate the vehicle that fell near the Vjosa river. He went down and immediately transmitted the information to the services, who then notified the prosecutor and the investigative team to come to the scene", said police director Çipa.
The area in question is known for transporting smugglers. Therefore, even according to the preliminary investigation, it is suspected that seven of them are from the countries of the Middle East, while the driver is from Shkodra.
The work for the full identification of the latter is continuing, meanwhile the prosecutor Petrit Çano says that they will cooperate with all the embassies in order to discover the names of the other victims.
As for the car, it turns out that it was rented in Shkodër and the driver is not the owner.
"As the Director of Police informed, we are dealing with a serious accidental event, he mentioned what the causes were, the way it happened. We have been informed by the Police Directorate and all other structures. Together with the general prosecutor, we came to the scene. We have organized the work to carefully examine the corpses, identify them, then in cooperation with other structures, we will carry out all investigative procedures to determine the causes and responsibilities if there are any. The vehicle returned again towards the city of Përmet, at a high speed, we still can't determine how much it was because it will go out continuously. Apparently it got out of hand and ended up in this part you're looking at. This is the object of the investigation. It turns out that only the driver of the vehicle is an Albanian citizen, the vehicle was rented at one of the points in Shkodër, the driver is not the owner. Other victims are foreign nationals from third countries who wanted to cross to other EU countries. We still know which countries they belong to. We are also waiting for forensic doctors from Tirana to do the autopsy. We will cooperate with all relevant embassies once we identify them. It is not just an accident, it comes as a result of a criminal event. In this area they deal with this illegal activity, in any case it is a combination of two criminal offences", District Prosecutor Petrit Çano told reporters.
While Çipa said, among other things, that the number of corpses is large and as a result there is a need to perform many examinations at the scene to obtain and administer evidence related to the identification of the victims and to clarify the circumstances.