A policeman looks at a burnt vehicle after a rally in Tirana January 22, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

TIRANA - Albanian opposition Socialist Party said on Saturday it would push for further protests after three people were killed in an anti-government demonstration in Tirana.

"The authorities have lost their legitimacy, and the government's last hour is approaching," Edi Rama, leader of the opposition party, told a press conference, calling for further protests but promising non-violence.

The three people died from gunshots at Friday's demonstration outside Prime Minister Sali Berisha's office. One was short in the head, and the other two in the chests.

A surgeon in Tirana's Military Hospital told a local television that five people were wounded in gunshots during the protest, and that the three people were killed not from close range, as was reported earlier.

Video footage of Friday's protest on the television showed that live bullets were fired from within the compound of government building as police tried to push back protesters.

The Albanian prosecutor's office has said that it has issued six arrest warrants for people suspected of playing a role in the killings, and they are waiting to be carried out by the police.

The opposition party announced Saturday a day of mourning for the three dead. Tirana people placed flowers and lit candles at the places where they were killed.

Police still stand guarding the government building. And glasses in the entrance door to the building remains broken one day after the protest.

On Friday, protesters pelted the government building and the police protesting it with stones, sticks, umbrellas and whatever they could get their hands on. Police responded with tear-gas, rubber bullet, stun grenade and water cannons to disperse them.

The opposition and the government are trading blames for the violence in which another one is still in a critical condition except the three deaths.

Rama told a press conference that demonstrators were provoked by the police and that the police didn't behave professionally. Prime Minister Sali Berisha charged the demonstrators had " criminals, bandits and terrorists" among them.

The opposition and the ruling coalition government have no love lost between them, and they have been at loggerheads since the 2009 general election, which the opposition accused the ruling government of rigging.

The tension came to a head this month when the Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Ilir Meta was forced from office over corruption allegations.

The opposition has been calling for the resignation of the coalition government led by Sali Berisha and early election, which is otherwise due in 2013.

Berisha rejected the demand for an early election, and Rama said his party would push for further protests.

The international community have called for calm after the incidence, urging compromise between the political parties in Albania.

"It's time to repair the damage. Now is not the time for more demonstrations in street," Alexander Arvizu, US ambassador to Albania, told a press conference in Tirana on Saturday.