TIRANA, Albania - Soldiers in tanks and police with shoot-to-kill orders rushed Tuesday into southern Albania, where crowds looted state grain reserves, trashed factories and fired guns in the streets.

Across the country, Albanians stocked up on staple foods as special forces in black uniforms and ski masks manned roadblocks, backed by men in civilian clothes carrying rifles.

A pair of air force pilots defected to Italy in their MiG-15, requesting political asylum, they said, because they had been ordered to open fire on a column of civilian vehicles.

Opposition members claimed the government bombed one southern town, and in the port city of Vlora, children played in the abandoned police station.

Vlora has been at the center of violence that began six weeks ago to protest failed investment schemes in which nearly every Albanian lost money, and has since escalated into general anti-government unrest.

The government has imposed censorship, forbidding reporters to travel to the area and restricting what Albanian news media can say about the unrest. Because of that, it was impossible to gather a complete picture of the situation Tuesday.

Even the government has acknowledged that much of southern Albania is out of its control.

In Vienna, former Chancellor Franz Vranitzky said he would lead a delegation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help facilitate dialogue between all political groups.

The European Union also said it would soon send ministers to the country, and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana on Tuesday ruled out military intervention. "Politics has to be done, diplomacy has to be done," Solana said in London.

Dialogue seemed far away. President Sali Berisha ruled out a coalition between his Democratic Party and the opposition Socialists, accusing them of having ruined "the constitutional order and Albanian democracy through armed rebellion."

State television reported Tuesday that tanks had arrived in Gjirokastra, 120 miles south of the capital, Tirana. It said there had been no shooting in the area since the tanks arrived.

If the announcement was meant to instill confidence, the accompanying footage undercut the message: A tank could be seen trying to pull another from a roadside ditch it had fallen into.

The defecting pilots, a major and a captain, said they were on an observation mission when they were ordered to open fire.

"We fled because they gave us the order to fire on a column of civilian vehicles near Gjirokastra," Capt. Agrae Dasci told reporters in Lecce, southern Italy. The asylum requests were being considered.

Britain's Channel 4 television, which had a reporter in the southern city of Saranda, quoted armed opposition members arriving from Delvina, 12 miles away, as saying that the small town had been bombed by government aircraft. There was no word on casualties, and no independent confirmation.

Channel 4 also said Saranda's pro-government mayor had been beaten Monday night and gone into hiding.

Vlora, 60 miles south of Tirana, also appeared to remain outside state control.

A 4-year-old girl was shot and killed Tuesday as she played in her yard in Vlora, hospital officials said. Three of her playmates were injured.

A Vlora resident, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity, said people were terrified to go outside because the shooting was relentless.

The resident said looters broke into state grain reserves in Pusi i Mezinit, just outside Vlora, and that trucks waited in line for loading. State news media later said 3,000 tons of grain were carted away.

And Vefa, the biggest investment scheme still officially intact, said all of its business property in Vlora, including a hotel complex, industrial park and about six factories, were destroyed. State radio estimated the damage at $50 million.

State television said police and the army controlled the national highway at Gjirokastra. Road blocks were set up elsewhere along the highway, and at the entrances to cities. Cars were searched, travelers were frisked and their identity papers checked.

Alfred Peza, a journalist for the Koha Jone daily, the most critical among Albania's independent news media, was beaten at a checkpoint and detained when he and a reporter for Italy's Corriere della Sera stopped in Fieri on their way back to Tirana.

Despite blanket police presence in the capital overnight - 48 people were arrested for breaking the 8 p.m. - 7 a.m. curfew - a coffee shop popular with journalists and political opposition members was firebombed.

Of Albania's independent newspapers, only one published Tuesday; all the others refused to submit their stories to the government for approval.