By Olga Dzyubenko and Maria Golovnina
BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyz troops opened fire on Wednesday on thousands of anti-government protesters who tried to smash two trucks through the perimeter fence of government buildings in the capital Bishkek, a Reuters reporter said.
Russian news agency RIA cited the opposition as saying later the government had resigned and President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had left the capital. There was no immediate confirmation.
The opposition said at least 100 people had been killed on Wednesday in the clashes that have spread across the country since last month.
Around 1,000 people stormed the prosecutor-general's office in Bishkek before setting fire to the building. Opposition activists also took control of state television channel KTR.
Government soldiers earlier fired automatic weapons from the government headquarters, where Bakiyev had been sheltering from the violence. He has made no public comment.
Protesters earlier arrived in the main square on an armored personnel carrier seized from the military.
Smoke from burning buildings and makeshift bonfires billowed around the capital of the ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 5.3 million people. The country hosts a U.S. military air base that helps support troops in Afghanistan, as well as a Russian base.
There were a series of blasts in the city and protesters were dragging away the wounded covered in blood.
"There are dozens of dead bodies, all with gunshot wounds," Akylbek Yeukebayev, a doctor at a Bishkek hospital told Reuters.
Many of the injured had gunshot wounds to their heads. "They are killing us," said one wounded man on the emergency ward.
"About 100 people were killed today, possibly more. What kind of negotiations with the government can we talk about when they are killing our people?," prominent opposition and human rights campaigner Toktoaim Umetaliyeza told Reuters.
The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said the official death toll in Bishkek was 40, with around 400 injured across the country.
Around 5,000 people were in the center of Bishkek, some carrying rifles and holding red-and-yellow Krygyz flags, despite a curfew which came into effect at 8 p.m. (1400 GMT). Some shops and restaurants in the main square were looted.
Political unrest over poverty, rising prices and corruption has gripped Kyrgyzstan since early March. About a third of the population live below the poverty line and remittances from workers in Russia have fallen during the global economic crisis.
The opposition wants Bakiyev, who came to power in a popular revolt in 2005, to fire his relatives from senior positions, and were seeking talks with him.
European security watchdog, the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, chaired by neighboring Kazakhstan, called for calm and offered to broker any talks.
"The OSCE recognizes that there are political, economic and social issues underlying the unrest, which need to be addressed through broad political dialogue. The Organization stands ready to facilitate such a dialogue," Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev told Kyrgyz counterpart Kadyrbek Sarbayev by telephone.
Protesters seized government buildings in three other towns. In Talas, Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Aklybek Japarov and Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev were beaten. Kongantiyev was forced to shout: "Down with Bakiyev!," two witnesses said.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov earlier told Reuters by phone that he and the president were working in their offices.
"We daren't even look out of the window," Kamil Sydykov, the prime minister's spokesman, said by telephone from inside the presidential building.
Kyrgyz opposition leader Temir Sariyev said he wanted to hold talks with Bakiyev. "We're going to the government's headquarters," he told Reuters by telephone. He said he would be accompanied by three more opposition politicians. Asked whom he would meet, he said: "The president, probably".
Sariyev was among more than 10 opposition politicians released after a crowd gathered outside the building in which they had been held. Sariyev was arrested on his arrival on a flight from Moscow earlier on Wednesday.
U.S., RUSSIA CALLED FOR CALM
Analysts said the violence was likely to continue.
"Given (Bakiyev's) resolve in recent years to concentrate power in his hands only, it is difficult to see how a political compromise may be found," Lilit Gevorgyan, political analyst at IHS Global Insight.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied Russia had played a hand in the clashes and called for restraint.
"Neither Russia, nor your humble servant, nor Russian officials have any links whatsoever to these events," Putin was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
The White House urged all parties to refrain from violence.
Kyrgyzstan receives aid from both Russia and the United States as well as from neighboring China. Bishkek also relies on remittances from migrant workers in Russia; payments that have dwindled in the past year as Russia's economy has suffered.
"The country still has an inherent vulnerability which in an environment of economic dislocation can easily be sparked off into a new cycle of violence," said Christopher Granville of Trusted Sources Research in London.
"The drop in remittances is a very important part of the explanation for the latest civic violence," he said.
The protests spread to the capital after riots which began in Talas and Naryn the day before and continued into Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Bishkek last week and called on the government to do more to protect human rights.
"The secretary-general is shocked by the reported deaths and injuries that have occurred today in Kyrgyzstan. He urgently appeals for dialogue and calm to avoid further bloodshed," Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said on Wednesday.
Additional reporting by Alexander Reshetnikov in Bishkek; Guy Faulconbridge; Amie Ferris-Rotman and Conor Sweeney in Moscow; Sylvia Westall in Vienna; Writing by Robin Paxton and Alison Williams; Editing by Philippa Fletcher
Reuters Canada
