Opposition protesters seized the presidential administration Wednesday night and announced on state radio that they had formed a provisional government with former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva at its head.

A worker at Bishkek’s international airport said that the 60-year-old Bakiyev had fled the capital aboard a small plane as his opponents consolidated their grip on key national institutions.

Opposition leader Temir Sariyev said on Kyrgyz radio that Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov had signed a letter of resignation and Otunbayeva vowed that the new leadership in the country would move quickly to normalize the situation.

“Power is now in the hands of the people’s government,” Otunbayeva said in an address on state radio.

“Responsible people have been appointed and are already working to normalize the situation.” The fast-moving events in Kyrgyzstan capped a day of ferocious clashes in Bishkek and other cities that quickly turned into a nationwide revolt against Bakiyev that was believed to have left scores dead.

An Associated Press reporter saw opposition leader Keneshbek Duishebayev sitting in the office of the chief of the National Security Agency, Kyrgyzstan’s successor to the Soviet KGB.

Opposition leaders have called for the closure of the Manas air base, saying it could put their country at risk if the United States goes to war with Iran. The US State Department said US transport operations at Manas, outside of the capital, Bishkek, were “functioning normally.”

As unrest swept the Central Asian republic, the opposition took control of the national television and state media reported that a deputy prime minister was held hostage in the remote northwest.

The riots were the culmination of spiraling protests in the Central Asian nation with the opposition demanding Bakiyev’s resignation and accusing his government of rights violations, authoritarianism and economic mismanagement.

Despite briefly arresting three leading opposition figures and declaring a state of emergency, the authorities failed to prevent the rebels from rapidly taking control of some of the main levers of power.

A Health Ministry official said 47 people had died, many from gunshot wounds, and more than 400 were injured.

The opposition said at least 100 people had been killed on Wednesday in the clashes.

The United States, which maintains an air base in Kyrgyzstan used in the NATO campaign in nearby Afghanistan, voiced “deep concern,” while Russia also appealed for calm in the former Soviet republic.

Earlier in the day, troops opened fire on thousands of anti-government protesters who tried to smash two trucks through the perimeter fence of government buildings in Bishkek. Opposition followers seized Parliament and government offices after clashes with security forces.

Around 1,000 people stormed the prosecutor-general’s office in the capital before setting fire to the building. Government soldiers earlier fired automatic weapons from the government headquarters, where Bakiyev had been sheltering from the violence.

There was intense gunfire in the center of the city and a series of blasts. Protesters were dragging wounded people covered in blood away from the square.

A group of protesters, waving red-and-yellow Kyrgyz flags, earlier arrived in the main square of the capital on an armored personnel carrier seized from the military.

“There are dozens of dead bodies, all with gunshot wounds,” Akylbek Yeukebayev, a doctor at a Bishkek hospital told Reuters.

In one town, Talas, Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Aklybek Japarov and Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev were badly beaten. Kongantiyev was forced to shout: “Down with Bakiyev!,” two witnesses said.