OSH, Kyrgyzstan, June 16 (UPI) -- Ethnic Uzbeks in riot-torn southern Kyrgyzstan have seized an oil depot servicing the southern portion of the country.
Those commanding the depot have threatened to blow up the facility in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, if the interim government fails to guarantee their security and instead tries to take it by force, Radio New Zealand reported Wednesday.
Interim government officials have begun discussions about gaining access to the site in Osh, which has been wracked by communal violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and their minority Uzbek neighbors over the past week. The Osh facility stores most of the gasoline distributed in the region.
Amid the growing violence the United Nations says about 250,000 people in the region have fled their homes in the region and the death toll has reached 179, with hundreds more wounded.
The violence is the worst in Kyrgyzstan since the government of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted April 7 by a popular uprising triggered by massive corruption and political repression.
