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Death toll hits 124 in Kyrgyzstan ethnic violence: ministry
At least 124 people have been killed and more than 1,685 wounded in spiralling ethnic violence in the south of the ex-Soviet state of Kyrgyzstan, the health ministry said today. See map | Listen to podcast
At least 124 people have been killed and more than 1,685 wounded in spiralling ethnic violence in the south of the ex-Soviet state of Kyrgyzstan, the health ministry said on Monday.
The previous death toll stood at 117.
"The death toll as a result of the events in the Jalalabad and Osh regions has reached 124 people" since Thursday in running street battles between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, the ministry said.
Another 1,685 have been wounded in the violence, it added.
Officials in neighbouring Uzbekistan said tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbek refugees had fled across the border from Kyrgyzstan to escape the violence.
Some officials put the number at well over 100,000.
The provisional Kyrgyz government, which seized power in April riots, has so far failed to quell the violence.
It has given shoot-to-kill orders to police and military and called up all reservists in its efforts to stem bloodshed but is also begging for military help from Russia amid the spiralling violence.
