Albanian divers found two more bodies on Tuesday while scouring a lagoon in which a young mother and her baby died at the weekend during a people smuggling operation.

Police divers searched the Butrint lagoon for a 17-year-old who went missing after a boat ferrying 13 would-be Albanian migrants capsized on Sunday, drowning the mother and baby.

The search operation was launched after the uncle of the missing teenager appealed to Prime Minister Sali Berisha. The two bodies found on Tuesday have yet to be identified.

The smugglers were using the lagoon to avoid a police checkpoint and ferry the migrants cross the border into Greece. Two people have been arrested for trafficking young Albanians from poor rural areas and police were looking for four others.

Albania, Europe's second poorest country, banned the use of speedboats three years ago to curb the trafficking of people and drugs across the Adriatic to Italy.

Since then poor Albanians seeking a better life abroad have used overland routes to Greece. One youngster had reportedly tried to cross into Greece 33 times over the last months.

Reuters