Albanian villager Skender Duraku accidentally shoots his wife to death as he attempts to unload his newly acquired gun.
Masked gunmen shoot and kill a money changer and rob him of $200 in broad daylight at a market in the southern town of Vlore.A driver, irritated by a slower car blocking the road, pulls out to pass, firing a pistol out of the window as he passes. Down the road an 18-year-old youth is shot down in what is believed to be a revenge attack.
This is just an average day in this small, Balkan country that has been overrun with weapons in the past three months.
Guns have become commonplace since many of Albania's 1,500 military arsenals were raided during riots triggered by the collapse of high-risk savings funds that erased people's life savings.
Unofficial estimates suggest that up to one million guns are in circulation among Albania's 3.4 million people.
Some are used by criminal gangs, others are being smuggled out of the country, while the rest are in the homes of terrified Albanians who have no prior knowledge of weapons - and the death toll is rising daily.
"Many of these deaths are accidental," said Dr. Servet Kojdheli, the director of the hospital at Vlore, the epicenter of the recent crisis as most its 180,000 residents lost money.
"At one stage we were getting about 30 people a day coming here with shotgun injuries. Some even carry guns when they come into the hospital with injured friends, threaten the doctors and shoot in the corridors. They're nervous in these times.
"I have faced the barrel of an automatic weapon a few times and even a rocket launcher."
No one knows precisely how many people have died in Albania. The first killing was reported in Vlore on Feb. 9 as angry crowds took to the streets, demanding the resignation of President Sali Berisha for not taking action to stop the funds fiasco.
The daily newspaper Albania said official sources estimate 720 people have been killed and 1,200 injured in the past three months.
This includes more than 100 people who drowned on March 28 when a ship fleeing to Italy collided with an Italian navy frigate and sank, and 27 people killed on April 30 when they triggered an explosion while looting a military arsenal.
Unofficial sources say there could be as many as 1,000 dead and 3,000 injured.
Fresh elections were called when the Democratic Party government resigned in the chaos and was replaced by an interim all-party body. They are due on June 29.
Albanians expect the election to result in a new, fair government that will restore order across the country.
"Most people, and many children, are injured by explosives, like grenades or bombs," Kojdheli said. "We hear of people getting drunk in bars and throwing grenades into the street.
"But also we get a lot of bullet wounds. Most are accidental but there are also cases of exchanges of fire, people avenging old grudges."
Past ills are not forgotten in Albania.
Revenge - known locally as hakmarrje - is part of the culture of Albania, a nation that emerged from 46 years of isolated, hard-line Stalinist rule in 1990.