Authorities in the Central Asian nation said the situation was under control but an independent radio station reported that locals were demanding that all Kurds leave the area within 24 hours.

The riots took place late Sunday in Petrovka, a village some 40 kilometres from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that is home to some members of the country's small Kurdish minority.

'Several hundred residents destroyed homes of Kurds. Around 20 houses were affected on several streets and a dozen cars were smashed,' Deputy Interior Minister Talantbek Isayev told reporters.

More than 50 people were arrested for taking part in the riots, in which locals were seeking to avenge the rape of a four-year-old ethnic Russian girl by a Kurdish man, officials said.

About 200 ethnic Russian and Kyrgyz locals gathered in Petrovka on Monday to call for the expulsion of Kurds from the village, according to Azatyk radio, the Kyrgyz-language version of US-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe.

The leaders of the mob said Kurds had 24 hours to flee or else they would face violence, according to the radio station.

It also said two people were wounded by gunfire on Sunday after Kurdish residents fired on the rioters.

Several thousand Kurds live in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous former Soviet republic that borders China. -- AFP