BULGARIA: Two gunmen dressed as priests killed three men and wounded two others in a gangland shoot-out in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia yesterday.
Assassins wearing the robes of orthodox priests gunned down a man linked to organised crime and two other men at a cafe in an upmarket Sofia suburb, and then fled, a police spokesman said. "It was a shoot-out between criminal drug gangs," the spokesman said, adding that the assailants were still at large.
Police said one of the dead men was a close ally of a leading organised crime figure in Sofia, and that the two other men killed alongside him appeared to be his bodyguards.
The Balkan country has struggled with rampant organised crime since the fall of communism 15 years ago, and has stepped up its efforts to stamp it out ahead of Bulgaria's planned accession to the European Union in 2007 along with Romania.
Police blame an increase in mafia-style murders in recent years on gangs competing for shrinking criminal markets such as drugs and prostitution.
Bulgaria is keen to join the EU in the hope that aid will improve standards of living for its citizens and boost its economy.
The EU plans to grant Bulgaria and Romania €15.4 billion from its 2007-2009 budget, including €5.4 billion for agriculture, €8.2 billion for regional aid and more then €1.6 billion on strengthening borders and administration. The biggest part of the aid is to go to Romania, which has a bigger population.