THE most common theme in the public domain in Bulgaria this week was speculation about a possible gangster war.

The most recent incidents prompted the right-wing opposition from the United Democratic Forces (UtDF) to demand the resignation of the Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov in a special declaration motioned in Parliament.

A day after the murder of Evgeni Stefanov, Zhenyata, last week, a fight among members of several organize criminal groups broke out in the Escape discotheque in the centre of Sofia.

In the small hours of Friday the heads of four groups, allegedly involved in drug trafficking and other criminal activities and their bodyguards started a fight with fists and knives, which grew into a shoot-out.

According to the police who arrived at the scene, in the club were present the gangs of Dimitrii Minev, the Russian, registered in the police for racketeering, fraud, forging of documents, with a suspended sentence; Anton Miltenov, the Beak, registered for drug dealing, kidnapping, assault, robbery, with a suspended sentence for theft; Krassimir Marinov, the Big Marghin - a former leader of the SIC group, registered for numerous crimes and Konstantin Dimitrov, Samokovetsa, registered for racketeering and allegedly one of the major smugglers in Bulgaria.

The police arrested more than 50 people and questioned them.

Several people were hospitalised in the Pirogov emergency hospital with stab wounds and bruises.

According to initial reports, no one was injured in the shooting. Later, however, it emerged that one of the bodyguards of Dimitrov was in the intensive care unit of Pirogov with shot wounds in the pelvis and the spinal cord.

During the inspection of the club, the police found 12 9-mm spent cartridges from an automatic pistol.

No one, however, admitted to firing a handgun.

The police found on the persons of several of the arrested knives and knuckle-dusters.

According to the police, the conflict started after Minev and his group stood in front of the people sitting in the VIP booths.

The chief secretary of the Interior Ministry Boiko Borissov said after the incident that the arrival of the police prevented the escalating of the skirmish and more victims.

Borissov speculated that the perhaps the reason for the fight and the shooting was the murder of Stefanov.

Borissov said that the police would do everything possible to charge as many of the participants in the fight and to send them to prison after fast trials.

The prosecution office initiated a case for hooliganism against an unknown perpetrator.

Meanwhile the authorities shut down the club and terminated the license of the company providing the security in the club - Saga Security.

Days after the incident in the Escape discotheque a bomb destroyed the cafe of the Visages fashion agency, owned by Evgenia Kalkandjieva.

The blast completely gutted the cafe, broke the windows of all apartment buildings near the site on Neofit Rilski street in the centre of Sofia and damaged several cars parked nearby.

No one was injured as the blast was in the small hours of Sunday morning.

Allegedly, Kalkandjieva has close relations with Marinov.

The former Miss Bulgaria who ranked sixth in the Miss World beauty contest in 1996 was assaulted several years ago.

Kalkandjieva said she did not know who might have planted the bomb or for what reason but said she was extremely upset.

"The blast was not only to scare me, it was too serious," Kalkandjieva said.

She, however, said that the blast was definitely not connected with the fashion business.

According to the police the bomb consisted of 400 grammes of TNT and was activated with a fuse.

Borissov said that the blast was most probably connected to the incident in Escape. "The people who took part in the clash in Escape are very vindictive and nothing good awaits us," he said. "The situation cannot be much different after the authorities are so tolerant towards people who carry, plant, make and order bombs."