A state of emergency has been declared in several areas of Kyrgyzstan including the capital following violence that erupted during protests staged by opposition supporters.
Reports say at least five people were killed in the capital Bishkek on Wednesday as protesters clashed with riot police while trying to seize the main government building.
Riot police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades at the crowd.
Besides Bishkek, emergency has been imposed in the towns of Naryn, Talas and the Chuiskaya region.
Clashes between police and anti-government protesters were also reported from several cities in the north.
The worst violence took place in Bishkek, where more than 5,000 protesters seeking the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev gathered near the president's office, according to reports.
'Dead bodies'
"There are five dead bodies lying on the square. There's a lot of blood," a photographer at the scene told the Reuters news agency.
Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier Walker, reporting from Bishkek, said: "In response, armed government forces fired on the crowd of protesters and this is where these deaths occurred.
Clashes between police and protesters spread to several cities in the north [Reuters]
"The situation is very tense; all the thousands of protesters are demanding the release of political prisoners."
Wednesday's unrest came a day after thousands of people in the northwest town of Talas stormed regional government offices.
The protesters broke into a government building where they briefly took hostage Bolotbek Beishenbekov, the local administrator.
Hundreds of demonstrators then gathered around a local police station and threw Molotov cocktails at portraits of Bakiyev.
Opposition leaders have called for nationwide protests on Wednesday.
Omurbek Tekebayev, the leader of opposition party Ata-Meken, said the protest in Talas was part of a wave of rallies planned by the opposition to put pressure on Bakiyev to meet their demands.
Growing tensions
Tekebayev demanded that Bakiyev urgently tackle corruption and fire his relatives from senior government positions.
The unrest comes amid rising tensions between the opposition and Bakiyev's government, which they accuse of cracking down on independent media and fostering corruption.
Earlier this month, a Kyrgyz court shut an opposition newspaper and banned two newspapers close to the opposition, fining them $111,000 for allegedly insulting Bakiyev.
Bakiyev - who came to power five years ago after street protests led to the country's so-called Tulip Revolution which ousted his predecessor - has grown increasingly unpopular on account of the country's dire economic situation.
Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished ex-Soviet country in Central Asia, has long been considered one of the region's most politically unstable countries.
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