Bodyguards of Kyrgyzstan's embattled president Kurmanbek Bakiyev fired shots into the air to help him escape a crowd of 1,000 opponents that disrupted a rally he planned to address today.
Witnesses at the scene both saw some of about 20 bodyguards fire bursts from Kalashnikov rifles while others ushered Mr Bakiyev into a waiting SUV. His motorcade then sped away from Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second city.
The gunfire, in two bursts minutes apart, started when opponents of Mr Bakiyev moved toward his meeting from a separate rally in support of the interim government, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. There was no immediate sign of casualties.
"The local authorities carried out provocative acts," Bakiyev aide Ravshan Dzhamgyrchiyev saod. He said the ousted president was unharmed and had already left the Osh region.
"When we began our rally, groups of their bandits started throwing stones and there was a big threat to the life of the person under guard," he said.
Mr Bakiyev has been trying to muster support in his southern stronghold since fleeing an April 7th uprising in the capital, Bishkek, during which his troops fired repeatedly into crowds of protesters calling for his resignation.
The interim government, which took power a week ago, has warned it will send special forces to arrest Mr Bakiyev and put him on trial for at least 84 deaths in the uprising, but has yet to try to detain him.
Osh is in the Ferghana Valley, where there were violent ethnic clashes in the last days of the Soviet Union and where ethnic and tribal tensions persist.
The standoff between Mr Bakiyev and the interim government carries with it the threat of further bloodshed in the impoverished Central Asian nation of 5.3 million.
Mr Bakiyev spoke briefly outside a theatre in the city before his guards shot into the air.
"I have come to Osh to tell you the truth about the tragic events in Bishkek last week," he said, standing underneath a banner reading: 'The opposition grabbed power. The opposition seized power with blood'.
The interior ministry of the new government has said it was considering sending troops to southern Kyrgyzstan, but that it would not allow a civil war.
The chief of staff to interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva said the interim leadership had repeatedly called on Mr Bakiyev to show restraint.
"Enough blood has been spilt already," said Edil Baisalov. "This is exactly what Bakiyev wants: either to die like a martyr or to continue using provocative acts."
Unrest in Kyrgyzstan, which has disrupted flights from a US air base that supports the war in Afghanistan, has brought to light major global power rivalries in the Central Asian state, where Mr Bakiyev's five-year rule ended abruptly a week ago.
The United States has sent Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake to Bishkek.
Mr Blake, the highest ranking US official to visit since the uprising, said yesterday that Washington was "prepared to help" the interim government.
Russia has also pledged $50 million in aid and loans to the provisional government of Kyrgyzstan.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who on April 8th became the first world leader to recognise the authority of the interim government, spoke to Mr Bakiyev by telephone last night at the initiative of the Kyrgyz president, the Russian government said in a statement.
Mr Putin also met the deputy leader of the interim Kyrgyz government, Almazbek Atambayev, who was in Moscow for talks.