Uzbek police officers stand guard at a check point in the suburbs of Tashkent

Protests continue in eastern Uzbekistan amid reports of hundreds of deaths after soldiers fired on crowds Friday in the city of Andijan.

News reports say crowds have dwindled in the central square of the city following another day of protests.

Uzbek human rights groups say troops gathered evidence of the carnage overnight, filling four trucks and a bus with bodies. Witness accounts indicate 200 or more people dead.

Reporters saw pools of blood, bits of flesh and piles of spent cartridges on the ground. Authorities later briefly detained the journalists then ordered them out of the city.

President Islam Karimov blamed islamic militants for the violence saying 10 government troops and "many more" protesters were killed.

Thousands of Uzbeks fled Andijan toward Kyrgyzstan after the shootings. Kyrgyz authorities closed the frontier, sparking protests and the burning of police vehicles.