At least 30 people died and dozens injured in clashes on the frontier of two neihbouring Muslim countries Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Fighting regularly flares up between the two former Soviet states, whose border has been disputed since the collapse of the USSR, reports BBC.
Despite the two countries agreeing a ceasefire earlier, the Friday’s clash claimed 30 lives and injured several others.
The neighbouring sides traded the blame for beginning the violence and breaching the ceasefire.
The Kyrgyz health ministry on Friday claimed that their some 24 people have so far been killed.
On the other hand, earlier reports from Tajikistan said at least three people had also been killed there.
Fearing the violence, almost 20,000 people have fled their homes, a regional branch of the Red Cross reported.
Though the fresh conflict has renewed fears of an all-out war between the two countries, an unprecedented fighting killed almost 50 people the past year.
The dispute fueled on Wednesday with at least two people killed in three separate incidents.
Blaming each other for the clash that left several people killed, Kyrgyz border guards accused Tajikistan of taking positions on part of the border that has not been demarcated, while Tajikistan said Kyrgyz guards had opened fire without provocation.
With more than a third of 1,000-km border dispute between the countries, Russia -which has close ties with both countries - has offered to mediate, calling for "urgent" measures to stop the violence on Friday.
Kyrgyzstan said two of its villages were shelled using tanks and armoured personnel carriers following a ceasefire with effect from 16:00 local time (10:00 GMT).
It accused its neighbour of In turn, Tajikistan accused Kyrgyz forces of shelling an outpost and seven villages with "heavy weaponry".
Bd-pratidin English/MSU
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