Opposition followers fought security forces in the Kyrgyz capital and captured state television as a revolt against president Kurmanbek Bakiyev left at least 17 dead.

As demonstrators seized the parliament building, reports and some officials said the interior minister had been killed by rioters in a remote north-western town, although his spokesman denied the information.

In the capital Bishkek, riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades in a repeated bid to fight off thousands of protestors surrounding Bakiyev’s offices before retreating as demonstrators rammed the gates.

The riots were the culmination of spiralling protests in the Central Asian nation with the opposition accusing the government of rights violations, authoritarianism and economic mismanagement.

A health ministry official said 17 people died, many from gunshot wounds, and 142 had been injured.

“Most are young people under the age of 30,” the official, Larisa Kachibekova, told AFP.

In a desperate bid to contain the unrest, prime minister Daniyar Usenov declared a state of emergency.

But after the announcement, opposition protestors stormed the Kyrgyz parliament and television centre, halting all programs, in a dramatic sign that the government was losing its grip.

A police source said interior minister Moldomus Kongantiyev had been killed in the northwest hub of Talas where the first protests erupted.

Mr Kongantiyev was attacked by protestors who had also taken deputy prime minister Akylbek Zhaparov captive, the Kabar Kyrgyz state news agency reported.

An interior ministry spokesman, Rakhmatullo Akhmedov, later said Mr Kongantiyev was alive but acknowledged the government had little information on the situation in Talas, saying it was “checking” reports the minister was taken hostage.

In Bishkek, explosions from stun grenades reverberated across the city and the crackle of automatic weapons fire filled the air as protestors in the main square gasped for breath in a fog of tear gas.

Amid appeals for calm from Russia, authorities in the ex-Soviet republic said three opposition leaders had been arrested for perpetrating “serious crimes”.

The United States, which maintains an air base in Kyrgyzstan used in the NATO campaign in nearby Afghanistan, also voiced “deep concern”.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 protestors overturned cars and set them on fire as they marched from the opposition headquarters towards the presidential offices, witnesses said.

Protestors appeared to have seized several heavily armoured police vehicles and were standing on them waving red Kyrgyz flags and the blue flag of the opposition movement.

The violence came a day after more than 1,000 opposition protesters burst through police lines and took control of government offices in Talas.

In the central city of Naryn, hundreds of opposition protesters stormed the regional government headquarters after the local governor refused to negotiate, local witnesses told AFP.

Witnesses in the city of Tokmak, just outside the capital, said around 2,000 demonstrators had gathered there. Residents in three regions near the southern town of Osh also told of protests in the streets.

Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country perched at the strategic junction between China, Russia and south-west Asia, is among the poorest countries to have emerged from the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

It has been plagued by corruption and chronic instability and the troubles resemble widespread unrest that washed over the country in March 2005 and resulted in the ouster of President Askar Akayev.

Opposition leaders accuse the Bakiyev government of basic rights violations, authoritarianism and arbitrary economic management that has resulted in sharply higher prices for basic goods and services.

As the unrest unfolded, Kyrgyzstan’s prosecutor general Nurlan Tursunkulov announced police had arrested former prime minister and presidential candidate Almazbek Atambayev, ex-parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev and his aide Bolot Cherniazov.

The United States has an airbase at Manas that has become a pivotal staging ground for the battle against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the US embassy in Bishkek said it was “deeply concerned” and urged “all parties to show respect for the rule of law and … to engage in talks to resolve differences”.