Tensions have been simmering since the end of an armed rebellion in 2001, when ethnic Albanian rebels fought Macedonian government forces for about eight months, seeking greater rights for their community. The conflict left 80 people dead, and ended with the intervention of NATO troops.

“I ask the media not to make any speculation that (the crime) is connected with interethnic issues ... There is no evidence of that,” police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

Kotevski said the five ethnic Macedonian victims, mostly young fishermen, had been found late Thursday near an artificial lake just north of the capital, of Skopje. The bodies had been discovered near the village of Smilkovci by a local fisherman.

Four of the victims were in their 20s, and the fifth was in his 40s, Kotevski said. Police have sealed off the area and the bodies are being examined by forensic experts. No suspects or motives for the slayings are yet known.

Riot police deployed on a highway leading to the village as dozens of angry youths blocked the road, according to AP photographs. There were two flare-ups of violence this year, the last one in March, with clashes between gangs of Albanian and ethnic Macedonian youths resulting in dozens of injuries. During several days of rioting, youths attacked buses and used iron bars, knives and baseball bats in street fights.

Ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, make up nearly a third of Macedonia’s population of 2.1 million people in a country that is majority Orthodox Christian.