TENS of thousands of students stormed the streets of Albania, burning buildings and hurling rocks at police amid anti-government protests.
Furious pupils torched a government building and two banks as they clashed with cops during protests in Tirana over rising education costs and corruption on Wednesday.
Apocalyptic scenes coming from the capital showed a dark blustering smoke rising to the sky as bright-orange flames licked the ground.
Videos captured masked protesters rampaging through the streets, dressed in black clutching to flares and rocks as police donned riot shields and deployed water cannon and teargas to disperse the crowds.
Business fronts were shattered, bins overturned and the Education building set ablaze as well as a nearby Raiffeisen Bank branches.
The student-led protest came after months of anti-government protests, known as the Flamingo Revolution, which call for Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.
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They are the most violent of the outbursts against the Prime Minister, who won a fourth term in office in elections in May last year but has since faced backlash at perceived corruption surrounding top officials.
The young demonstrators call for his resignation as well as better university conditions and job prospects.
Lora, a student who declined to give her last name as she admitted to throwing rocks at the police, called the action a “revolution”.
She said: “We are tired of peaceful protests.
“We will not stop until Rama resigns.”
Others chanted “Resignation” and “Police of crime.”
Albanian media reported that Wednesday’s protests also spread to universities in other parts of the country, namely Elbasan and Shkodra.
Deputy Prime Minister Albana Kociu pleaded with the protesters in a post to Facebook and said: “I call on students and every honest citizen who believes in the right to protest: Distance yourself from violence and vandalism!”
The police also issued a statement calling for peace, warning that violence will be met with a heavy hand.
They said: “Any person who uses violence, burns or destroys property, or attacks Police officers, bears individual responsibility and will face the law, in accordance with the offences committed.”
The Flamingo Protests were sparked by the proposed development of a luxury resort along Albania’s southern coast.
The unrest comes as part of a broader wave of European student action targeting poor education and rising living costs.
In France, students have staged weeks of protests and school blockades demanding more teachers and better facilities, saying that deteriorating school buildings and overcrowded classrooms are damaging their education.
Last week shocking videos emerged from Paris showing a wall of armed police clashing with student protesters.
Masked pupils were seen hanging off railings as huge projectiles were hurled at police – including fireworks, plants ripped straight out of the ground and the protesters’ own shoes.
The French Interior Ministry said there has been “an increase in urban violence, on the fringes of the peaceful mobilisations of sixth form students, which has marred their legitimate expression”.
On Tuesday, Greta Thunberg joined protestersat the Paul-Eduard Lycée – one of the schools at the centre of the violent protests – in Saint-Denis, near Paris.
Thunberg, 23, condemned what she saw as an “extremely violent” police response.
That day more than 250,000 protesters took to the streets across the country.
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