THOUSANDS of opposition supporters stormed a police station and re-occupied the local governor’s office in southern Kyrgyzstan yesterday in the most violent unrest so far over flawed parliamentary elections.

Earlier police had briefly recaptured the governor’s office in the southern city of Jalalabad, beating and detaining dozens of the activists who had taken it over in protest at alleged electoral abuses.

Then a crowd of about 10,000 people attacked the police headquarters, setting it on fire with petrol bombs and freeing detained activists, before retaking the governor’s office. Police fired shots in the air and used teargas, but were forced to abandon both buildings.

Last night Interfax, the Russian news agency, said that according to police sources as many as ten people had been killed. Independent verification of the claim was unavailable. Four demonstrators were confirmed killed in the southern city of Osh after a police assault on the building they were occupying. Opposition supporters occupied at least five local government headquarters last week to demand the resignation of President Akayev. They seek a “lemon ” or “tulip” revolution in the former Soviet republic, inspired by the Orange Revolution in Ukraine’s and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, both of which were triggered by rigged elections.

“Our demand is the immediate resignation of the President — nothing less,” Rosa Otunbayeva, an opposition leader who was blocked from running in the election, said. “This is an irreversible process. The people are so angry.”

Mr Akayev, who has been in office since 1990, has accused the Opposition of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a statement urging the Government and the Opposition to refrain from violence and to open negotiations. The Government said yesterday that it was ready to talk.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, an Opposition leader, said that talks would be possible only with Mr Akayev himself. “All other lower-level negotiations will be just a waste of time,” he said. “The authorities’ decision to use force against people won’t bring any good.”

Mr Akayev repeatedly has promised to step down before a presidential election in October in what would be the first democratic transition of power in a region dominated by autocratic Soviet-era leaders. Yet the Opposition accuses Mr Akayev of stuffing parliament with his friends and relatives with a view to changing the Constitution. The President’s son, Aidar, and daughter, Bermet, both won seats in the recent election . The OSCE and the United States have said that both rounds of the poll, on February 27 and March 13, were undemocratic, citing vote-buying, abuse of state media and disqualification of candidates.

Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in Central Asia, with a population of just five million, but it is strategically important as it has a Russian and an American military base and shares a border with China.

Mrs Otunbayeva said that the Opposition planned to retake the governor’s office in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city, today. Along with the four dead, more than a dozen people were injured and more than 200 demonstrators were arrested when police evicted activists from the building.

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