Kyrgyzstan's capital will mourn as first funerals are held for the victims of riots that swept President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power, while the new interim government struggles to restore law and order.
The toppled president defied calls to resign on Thursday in the face of a bloody people's uprising as fresh gunfire rang out in the capital of the strategic Central Asian country.
The new rulers announced plans for elections and the disbanding of parliament as the newly appointed interim leader Roza Otunbayeva said a US airbase vital for sending supplies to Afghanistan would remain open.
After violent clashes left 75 to 100 people dead and 1,000 wounded on Wednesday, fresh automatic weapons fire in the capital indicated that the situation remained volatile as night fell on Thursday.
Over the past 24 hours, 49 people were hospitalized, health ministry officials told AFP Friday, complaining that looters were impeding ambulance cars.
"Doctors are not allowed through to their patients. We call on people for prudence and calm, or ambulance teams simply will not make it to many injured on time," an official in the ministry's headquarters said.
The interim interior minister ordered looters to be shot on sight, after major pillaging that accompanied the riots, including of Bakiyev's residence where everything from radiators to plants was taken.
Early on Friday the interior ministry reported in a statement that "due to well-coordinated action and mobile groups of police and soldiers and neighborhood watch, Bishkek was fully free of the crowds of rioting youngsters."
"Special means and gunfire were used against looters and rioters," the ministry said, adding that the situation in Bishkek was stable and calling on families of the rioters to "persuade them off the way of crime."
As Russia and the European Union vowed to support the interim government, the man chased from power after a five-year rule said the nation faced catastrophe.
Although his exact whereabouts were unknown, Bakiyev told Russian radio he was in southern Kyrgyzstan and had no plans "to leave at the moment", and released a statement insisting that he would not throw in the towel.
"I declare that as president I have not abdicated and am not abdicating responsibility," Bakiyev said in the statement published by local news website 24.kg, considered the Internet mouthpiece of his administration.
He said the country was on the brink of a full-fledged "humanitarian catastrophe" and admitted the army and police were no longer in his control.
"In many regions of the country, and especially in the capital, we see genuine chaos, a wave of violence and pillage is swelling and inter-ethnic conflicts are emerging," he said in the statement.
Ex-foreign minister Otunbayeva, who has been declared interim leader, said Bakiyev was trying to rally support in a southern stronghold after the deadly revolt against his rule.
But she said fresh presidential elections would be held in six months' time as she secured support from the Russian government, still the key foreign player in the former Soviet republic.
Kyrgyzstan has been plagued by corruption and chronic instability and the uprising was the culmination of growing opposition anger fuelled by widespread fraud and irregularities in last year's presidential polls.
As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the re-establishment of constitutional order and announced he was sending an envoy to the country, Otunbayeva appealed for calm and told the armed forces to refrain from force.
The parliament, she said, would be disbanded and the provisional government would temporarily perform the duties of both the president and parliament.
She said a US airbase at Manas outside Bishkek which is seen as vital to the NATO campaign in nearby Afghanistan would remain open despite the power shift.
The US military said it had scaled back flights at the base, but the unrest had not "seriously affected" its efforts to ferry troops and supplies to Afghanistan.
Careful not to upset Moscow, Otunbayeva also spoke by phone with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who in turn offered aid.
Nikolai Makarov, the Russian military's chief of staff, said an extra 150 elite paratroopers were being sent to its military base just outside Bishkek to help ensure security for military personnel already based there.
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