**Hundreds of protesters in north-west Kyrgyzstan have stormed a regional government building and removed the local governor.**Protesters are now gathering in the main square in the city of Talas and also in front of the local police headquarters.
Some reports suggest that police used tear-gas to disperse the crowd.
The protesters are demanding an end to family-clan rule in the country and a cut in household utility prices.
Up to 1,000 protesters in the north-western city of Talas have seized the local government building and imposed their own “people’s governor”, reports say.
The head of the Talas administration is said to be inside the building but he is not believed to be in control of the situation.
A local opposition activist told the BBC that the situation was tense; protesters were walking in the street and trying to gather more people in the city’s main square.
The protest was sparked by the arrest of a regional opposition leader earlier in the day.
Demonstrators are demanding an end to what they call family-clan rule in Kyrgyzstan and the reduction of utility prices, which have doubled from January.
Kyrgyzstan’s united opposition had been planning to hold a nationwide protest on Wednesday, but one of the leaders said the protests had already started.
The Ministry of Interior denied that the government building in Talas had been seized.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.