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Hundreds of Albanians took the streets of London in flashy cars overnight to celebrate their country’s independence day. 

Video footage shared online shows a Lamborghini, Mercedes, Audis, Range Rovers and Porsche 4x4s all bringing traffic around Westminster to a standstill as Metropolitan Police officers attempt to move the vehicles on. 

In various clips, men and women can be seen waving the Albanian flag while hanging out of the windows of their cars and blowing airhorns. 

Elsewhere, cars performed wheel spins while young women donned traditional dresses and danced in the street. 

The images sparked fury with motorists, with some branding the celebrations as 'selfish'

The images sparked fury with motorists, with some branding the celebrations as ‘selfish’

Albanian people bring disruption to central London as they celebrate Independence Day by honking car horns and blocking traffic on Monday night

Albanian people bring disruption to central London as they celebrate Independence Day by honking car horns and blocking traffic on Monday night 

Loud firecrackers were let off while the long line of vehicles beeped their horns continuously to celebrate Albania’s independence, which is commemorated on November 28 each year. 

The small European nation became independent on that date in 1912, just 110 years ago. 

MailOnline has contacted the Met for comment. 

The images sparked fury with motorists, with some branding the celebrations as ‘selfish’. 

One Twitter user fumed: ‘Albanians in London celebrating their Independence Day selfishly blocked the Strand and Trafalgar Square, as people were coming out of the theatres at 10pm.

The small European nation became independent on that date in 1912, just 110 years ago.

The small European nation became independent on that date in 1912, just 110 years ago.

A Mercedes performs a wheel spin as part of Albanian Independence Day celebrations in central London

A Mercedes performs a wheel spin as part of Albanian Independence Day celebrations in central London 

Young women donned traditional dresses and danced in the street

Young women donned traditional dresses and danced in the street 

Albanians ride in the back of an Audi convertible while celebrating their country's independence in London

Albanians ride in the back of an Audi convertible while celebrating their country’s independence in London 

‘The traffic was horrible, an hour’s delay.’ 

Another added: ‘One of the reasons it took me ages to get home yesterday’, while one driver warned: ‘Don’t go down town the traffic is a nightmare.’ 

Others defended the Albanians after Twitter users commented on the number of luxury cars. 

One wrote: ‘Couple of fancy cars here but the majority look pretty ordinary to me (a lot of mid range new cars just look like that these days). 

‘Central London is hardly going to be demographically representative of Albanians in Britain as far as wealth goes either.’ 

It comes after figures revealed this week showed Albanians accounted for just over a third of people detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in the first nine months of this year. 

Police speak to Albanian motorists as they celebrated in central London on Monday night

Police speak to Albanian motorists as they celebrated in central London on Monday night 

Police attempting to move on hundreds of cars with Albania flags around Westminster Bridge

Police attempting to move on hundreds of cars with Albania flags around Westminster Bridge

A man draped in an Albanian flag stands atop a white Range Rover as two women lean outside the passenger windows

A man draped in an Albanian flag stands atop a white Range Rover as two women lean outside the passenger windows 

The traffic sparked fury with motorists, with some branding the celebrations as 'selfish'

The traffic sparked fury with motorists, with some branding the celebrations as ‘selfish’

It is a sharp increase on previous years, with only 3% of arrivals in 2021 being of Albanian nationality, and just 1% in 2020.

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In the three months from July to September, 45% of small boat arrivals were Albanian (9,076) and on some days the figure was as high as 80%.

The celebrations last night marked the second large gathering of Albanians in the capital this month following protests against the Home Secretary two weeks ago.

A group of protesters sparked fury when they draped their flag over the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square on November 12 as they protested against statements made by Suella Braverman.

More than 1,500 protesters gathered on Westminster Bridge and marched towards the Palace of Westminster asking the Government to respect them as people and their human rights, stating ‘not all Albanians are criminals.’ 

The Home Secretary came under fire from opposition parties and some of her own side over stark language she used in the Commons earlier this month.

She suggested that only the Tories were ‘serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast’. Albanians have accounted for 12,000 of the record 40,000 migrants who have arrived in the UK this year. 

Organisers said that the purpose of the march was to ‘protest against the humiliation of Albanians in Britain’. 

They added that there is widespread anger that Albanians have been blamed by Britain for influencing ‘the increase in criminality in the country’. 

Ms Braverman last month caused a furore when she said Britain faced an ‘invasion’ of illegal migrants, but has since doubled-down on her vow to stem the flow of illegal cross-Channel migrants, 42 per cent of whom are Albanian.

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Following Ms Braverman’s comments, Albania’s Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama had accused the UK of discriminating against his countrymen to distract from its ‘policy failures’.

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