In a fresh round of violence in Kyrgyzstan, on Monday hundreds of police officers were dispatched to suppress riots that started in a village outside of the capital, Bishkek.

Ethnic Kyrgyz rioters seized plots of land from Russians and Turks in the village of Mayevka, and in the subsequent violence five people were killed and many others injured.

"The crowd poured into Mayevka and started wreaking destruction, robbing and killing. They mainly robbed and burned the homes of Turks living in the village," Alexander Konstantin, a local resident, told journalists.

"All the provocateurs and ringleaders in the riots will be punished to the full extent of the law," the interim government said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The riot was the latest challenge to the interim government, which seized power earlier this month after a popular uprising that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. However, so far the interim government has failed to establish full control over the country.

On Monday, loyalists of the former president installed a pro-Bakiyev governor after seizing a regional government in Jalalabad.

Bakiyev's whereabouts unknown

Toppled President Bakiyev was flown to Kazakhstan last week in an attempt to reduce the risk of civil war in Kyrgyzstan.

A spokesperson for the foreign ministry in Kazakhstan confirmed to the AP news agency that Bakiyev had left the country, but provided no further details about where he had gone.

Bakiyev is wanted by the interim Kyrgyz government in connection with the shootings of demonstrators during the protests in early April that culminated in his overthrow.

cb/AFP/Reuters/AP
Editor: Chuck Penfold