MOSCOW, May 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Situation in Uzbekistan's border city of Kara-Su has calmed down, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Sunday from Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek.

    Shops, municipal offices in the city are now in normal operation, and people from the Uzbek part of the city are allowed to enter the Kyrgyz part, with their document papers scrupulously checked by Kyrgyz border guards.

    Kara-Su had been divided into two parts after the collapse of the Soviet Union -- one now belongs to Kyrgyzstan and the other to Uzbekistan.

    Hundreds of local residents captured administrative buildings in Kara-Su and set ablaze police stations on Saturday. Protesters in the central square of the Uzbek part of the city continued a rally till late at night.

    Earlier reports said the protesters did not put forth any political demands, but only requested to pass the border to Kyrgyzstan, which was closed down on both sides after the turmoil in Andijan.

    Uzbek President Islam Karimov told a news conference in the capital Tashkent on Saturday that about 30 people armed with pistols and submachine guns had provoked disturbances in Andijan on Friday, which left at least ten people killed and nearly 200 wounded.

    Refugees fleeing Andijan began flowing in Kara-Su on Saturday morning in hope of crossing into neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Enditem