Witnesses in eastern Uzbekistan say up to 500 people died in the city of Andijon when government troops fired into a crowd of anti-government demonstrators on Friday.
A physician in Andijon is quoted by Associated Press as saying hundreds of bodies collected from the city's central square have been taken to School Number 15 guarded by soldiers.
Corpses have been arranged in rows in the school building, so grieving relatives can claim their dead for burial Sunday. Government soldiers are out in force in Andijon, but no further outbreaks have been reported.
Uzbeks angered by the slaughter in Andijon burned police cars and seized control of official buildings Saturday in several towns near the border with Kyrgyzstan. Thousands of people also have been trying to escape the government's crackdown by crossing into neighboring Kyrgyzstan, but few have succeeded.
Many witnesses have described how troops opened fire on unarmed protesters, but Uzbek President Islam Karimov says no such order was given. He blames Friday's bloodshed on an outlawed Islamist militant group, Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Members of the militant group denied they had an role in the uprising in Andijon. They say Uzbekistan's stagnant economy and the Karimov government's repressive practices set the stage for last week's mass demonstrations.
A leader of the protests in Andijon told Associated Press that the Interior Minister Zakir Almatov specifically threatened violence against the demonstrators.
Information for this report is provided by AP and Reuters.
