Two Russians and a Ukrainian have been arrested for allegedly spying on a military plant in southern Albania, authorities have said.

The country’s defence ministry said a Russian man, identified only as a 24-year-old with the initials M Z, was detained after entering the grounds of the plant in Gramsh, 50 miles (80km) south of the capital, Tirana, and taking photos.

Two guards at the plant were injured when the Russian used what it said was a “neo-paralysing spray” while resisting arrest, the ministry added in a statement.

Another Russian woman, identified as S T, 33, and a Ukrainian man, F A, 25, were held outside the complex and their vehicle was blocked, the ministry said.

“Three citizens with Russian and Ukrainian passports have tried to enter the factory,” the ministry said in a statement sent to media.

“The officers who were guarding the plant reacted immediately, but during their efforts to stop the three foreign nationals, two of our soldiers were injured,” the statement said.

The two guards injured by the spray were taken to hospital for medical care where their condition is “stable”, it added.

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Military police, army intelligence police and civil and anti-terror police are jointly investigating.

The Gramsh military plant originally made AK-47, or Kalashnikov, rifles, after it opened in 1962. After the collapse of communism in 1990, production ended and it was used to dismantle old Kalashnikovs and other small weapons.

The defence ministry’s website only says that currently the plant provides manufacturing services for the defence industry.

Albanian prime minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter: “What pride for the military guards who neutralised three individuals suspected of espionage… Now let’s wait for the full clarification of this event.”

Albania, which was run by a communist government from 1946 to 1990, has been a NATO member since 2009.

It has strongly denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has joined US and European Union sanctions against Moscow.

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