At least 23 people have been killed and 300 wounded in an outbreak of violence in the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Osh, forcing the government to impose a state of emergency in the region.

The interim government, led by Roza Otunbayeva, said that the violence was a "local conflict" possibly sparked by an argument, but the unrest in the southern power base of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the ousted president, is likely to stoke fears of ethnic clashes.

"Clashes and exchanges of fire between groups of youths took place overnight Thursday to Friday in Osh and the neighboring districts of Karassu, Arava and Uzgen," Farid Niyazov, a government spokesman, said.

"A state of emergency has been declared in Osh and these districts from June 11 until June 20," he said.

Witnesses said fighting broke out between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek groups in Osh, a stronghold of Bakiyev who was overthrown by a popular revolt in April.

"About a thousand youths armed with batons and stones gathered Thursday evening in the centre of Osh," Azamat Ussmanov, a resident of Osh, told reporters.

"They broke shop windows and the windows of residential buildings, burned cars. Several fires also broke out in the town," he said.

A health ministry spokeswoman said that different injuries, including gunshot wounds, had been reported.

Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier-Walker said that it was very difficult to confirm the reports of ethnic violence.

"The interim government said that this was not a planned event, but it is difficult to believe that this was something spontaneous," our correspondent said.

Bolot Cher, the interior minister, and Ismail Issakov, the defence minister, had both travelled to Osh.

Turmoil

Kyrgyzstan, which won independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has been in turmoil since the revolt that toppled Bakiyev.

Political tensions between the agricultural south and the north of Kyrgyzstan exist alongside ethnic and clan rivalries.

Bakiyev's supporters briefly seized government buildings in the south on May 13, defying central authorities in the capital, Bishkek.

Two people were killed and 74 were wounded on May 19 in clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the city of Jalalabad. On the same day, Otunbayeva said she would rule the country until 2011, scrapping earlier plans for presidential polls in October.

Jalalabad has also been the scene of fierce clashes between supporters of the interim government and those of Bakiyev, who is in exile in Belarus.

Of Kyrgyzstan's 5.3 million population, ethnic Kyrgyz make up 69.6 per cent, Uzbeks 14.5 per cent and Russians 8.4 per cent.

PHOTO CAPTION

Servicemen drive armored vehicles in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan June 11, 2010.