Thousands of Uzbeks seeking to flee the country stormed government buildings in an eastern frontier village Saturday, torching police cars and attacking border guards in a second day of violence after bloodshed that witnesses said has left hundreds dead.

Thousands of Uzbeks seeking to flee the country stormed government buildings in an eastern frontier village Saturday, torching police cars and attacking border guards in a second day of violence after bloodshed that witnesses said has left hundreds dead.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov blamed Islamic extremists for the uprising in Andijan, the ex-Soviet republic´s fourth-largest city.

But relatives of the dead angrily denounced authorities as they collected bodies and washed blood from the streets of Andijan, a day after troops fired into a crowd there that included women and children.

Kyrgyz border guards turned back about 6,000 Uzbeks who were trying to flee Uzbekistan. Some of those rushing to the border assaulted authorities and took control of government buildings in the village of Korasuv, 50 kilometers east of Andijan.

Israeli embassies around the world went on heightened alert over the weekend, after police shot and killed a man wearing a fake explosive belt as he approached the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent on Friday.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the man was spotted by local Uzbek police and Israeli security guards near the embassy, wearing a long jacket and with both a bomb belt and detonation system clearly visible.

Guards called the man to stop and lie on the ground, but he refused, at which point the guards opened fire at the suspect´s legs. Shot in the leg, the man continued to advance toward the embassy, and was shot in the head and killed by guards. The bomb belt did not contain real explosives.

The victim was identified as an unemployed ethnic Russian who had a history of mental illness and had served prison time, the official said. Svetlana Artikova, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general´s office, said the man was identified as Georgiy Aleksandrov, 53.

Israel´s ambassador in Tashkent, Ami Mel, described the incident in an interview with Israel Radio.

"At about 9:30, a suspicious person approached the embassy. Following the events in Andijan we were on an especially high state of alert," Mel said.

"A policeman approached him, and he pushed the policeman away. Two of our security people called on him to stop – one of them a Russian- speaker – and he shouted back that he hates Israel, and that he would show us," the ambassador said.

"He continued to advance and then he was shot, I´m not sure by whom but he was shot in the legs, and when he tried to keep coming he was shot dead. In an examination of his body afterward, a fake bomb was discovered," Mel said.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom spoke with the ambassador to Uzbekistan after the incident.

The incident occurred as the embassy was opening for the day. Both Israeli and Uzbekistani guards were posted around the embassy´s perimeter.

This was the second incident at the embassy in a year. In July, two Uzbek guards including the ambassador´s personal bodyguard were killed in a suicide bombing at the embassy. The US Embassy and Uzbek prosecutors´ office were also targeted in nearly simultaneous suicide attacks then, which killed seven people in all.

Uzbek leaders blamed Islamic extremists for the bombings.

Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Karimov on Saturday to express concerns that Central Asia could be destabilized by fighting that broke out Friday after protesters stormed a prison and occupied the local government offices before government forces put down the uprising.

The protesters´ goal appeared to be releasing 23 men who were on trial for alleged Islamic extremism. Their supporters say they are victims of religious repression.

Karimov´s hard-line secular regime has long cracked down on Muslims who worship outside state-approved mosques, and observers have warned of a possible Islamist uprising after the authoritarian leader in neighboring Kyrgyzstan was ousted in March.

However, none of the protesters mentioned political or religious demands at Friday´s protest – their complaints focused on the poor economic situation in Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek leader said 10 government troops and "many more" terrorists died in Friday´s fighting. Witnesses said 200 to 300 people were shot dead, and an AP reporter saw at least 30 bodies in Andijan. Karimov said at least 100 people were wounded. He didn´t say who fired first.

He claimed negotiations with the terrorists collapsed after they demanded all their followers be released from jails across the Fergana Valley, Central Asia´s conservative heartland.

"To accept their terms would mean that we are setting a precedent that no other country in the world would accept," Karimov told a news conference in the capital, Tashkent.

Karimov claimed the uprising was orchestrated by a "faction of Hizb ut-Tahrir," a banned movement seeking to create an Islamic state in Central Asia. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has long been targeted by the Uzbek regime – a campaign that has been one of human rights activists´ top grievances against the authoritarian government.

On Saturday in Korasuv, protesters set police offices on fire and vandalized their vehicles, a Kyrgyz official said. Uzbek helicopters were seen circling overhead.

In Andijan, about 1,000 angry protesters marched in the streets. Hundreds gathered at the site of the earlier violence, placing six bodies on display from the scores witnesses said were killed in fighting. Clusters of bystanders watched as men covered other bloodied bodies with white shrouds.

Demonstrators, some with tears in their eyes, condemned the government for firing on women and children. Residents said a group of hundreds later went to a local police station to confront the heavily armed authorities, who sent a helicopter buzzing low over the crowd to scare them away.

Karimov said the activists were trying to follow the pattern set earlier this year where demonstrations brought down the government in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

He said he ordered authorities not to take any physical action against the demonstrators Saturday.

"In Uzbekistan, nobody fights against women, children or the elderly," he said.

By evening, only about 200 protesters remained in the center of Andijan, residents said.

In Friday´s standoff, Karimov claimed the government had offered the demonstrators free passage out of the city in buses with their weapons, seized in attacks on a police station and military outpost.

But a protest leader, Kabuljon Parpiyev, said Interior Minister Zakir Almatov didn´t sound willing to negotiate when they spoke by phone Friday. "He said, ´We don´t care if 200, 300 or 400 people die. We have force and we will chuck you out of there anyway,´" Parpiyev quoted Almatov as saying.

Earlier Saturday, soldiers loaded scores of bodies onto four trucks and a bus after blocking friends and relatives from collecting them, witnesses said.

Lutfulo Shamsutdinov, head of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, said he saw the bodies of about 200 victims being loaded onto trucks near the square.

A witness in central Andijan told The Associated Press that "many, many dead bodies are stacked up by a school near the square." Daniyar Akbarov, 24, joined the protests Saturday after being freed from the prison during the earlier clashes.

"Our women and children are dying," he said, tearfully beating his chest with his fists. Akbarov said he saw at least 300 people killed.

The focus of the jailbreak was 23 men charged with membership in a group allegedly allied with Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which seeks to create a worldwide Islamic state and has been forced underground throughout most of Central Asia and Russia.

The men are alleged members of Akramia – a group named for their founder, Akram Yuldashev, an Islamic dissident sentenced in 1999 to 17 years in prison for allegedly urging Karimov´s ouster. He has proclaimed his innocence. The group forms the heart of the city´s small business community.

Their trial has inspired one of the largest public shows of anger at the government in years, and the largest outbreak of violence since Uzbekistan became an independent country after the 1991 Soviet collapse. (© 1995-2005, The Jerusalem Post 05/15/05)