An estimated 400,000 people – nearly one-twelfth the population – fled their homes to escape Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic violence, the UN said as throngs of refugees huddled in grim camps along the Uzbekistan border without adequate food or water.

Police and soldiers struggled to stop deadly ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan today as gangs of armed young Kyrgyz men marched on Uzbek neighbourhoods where houses were already burning.