Thousands of Kyrgyz had gathered at a horseracing track on the outskirts of Jalalabad to demand the arrest and punishment of those who killed two people in violence between Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks on Wednesday. They blamed Uzbeks for the deaths.
When governor Bektur Asanov addressed the crowd, protesters attacked him and smashed up an ambulance which came to take him to hospital, witnesses told Reuters by telephone. The governor's fate was unclear. Protesters later tried to set his car on fire.
Defense Minister Ismail Isakov, sent to the region by Kyrgyzstan's interim government, later on Thursday tried to calm the crowd of up to 7,000 people, but it paid little heed. Some started throwing stones at passing cars.
Protesters, many of whom had traveled from distant villages, gave Isakov 24 hours to find those they said shot at ethnic Kyrgyz on Wednesday. They did not say what steps they would take if their demands were not met.
On Wednesday, a Reuters witness heard shots fired from inside Jalalabad's University of the People's Friendship, sponsored by local Uzbek leader Kadyrzhan Batyrov, after a huge crowd of ethnic Kyrgyz pelted the building with stones.
One of those killed was shot dead, while another died of a brain trauma, the Health Ministry said, adding that 74 were injured. Officials did not disclose the ethnic identity of the victims.
The inter-ethnic clashes flared up after thousands of angry Kyrgyz demanded the arrest of Batyrov, who they said had called for the creation of an autonomous Uzbek region in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan's turmoil was ignited by the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in a bloody revolt last month, when more than 80 people were killed.
Russia and the United States, which both have military air bases in the impoverished nation, are alarmed by the unrest in the ethnically divided corner of largely Muslim Central Asia. Giant neighbor China is also watching with unease.
The interim government has imposed a state of emergency and a curfew in Jalalabad and a neighboring rural district. The authorities blame Bakiyev supporters for fomenting inter-ethnic hatred to throw the country into chaos.
Bakiyev, an ethnic Kyrgyz still supported by many in his native Jalalabad region, fled to Belarus after he was ousted.
Jalalabad was the scene of two days of fierce clashes last week between supporters of Bakiyev and those of the interim government. At least two people were killed and dozens wounded.
In the last days of the Soviet Union two decades ago, at least 300 people were killed and thousands injured in clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.
