Things seem to be getting ugly

The latest from RIA Novosti (this one is not up in English in their site yet, so I've translated it):

"A storm of Andijan could begin at any moment" 17:47 MSK

Moscow, 13 May - RIA Novosti. Uzbekistani government forces could initiate a storm of Andijan at any moment, according to a telephone report provided on Friday to RIA Novosti by Saidjakhon Zainabitdinov, the chairman of the Andijan regional human rights defense society "Appeliatsiia."

"Just a half-hour ago all was quiet in the city, but now the situation is heating up, everything is complicated and unpredictable. It seems that government forces are about to storm the city, helicopters are patrolling overhead and in between rolls of thunder one can hear bursts of machine-gun fire," said the human-rights defender.

Zainabitdinov reported that roughly 30 thousand people had gathered near the regional administration headquarters. According to him, "Navoi Prospekt [the main street in the city] is filled with people along the distance between three bus stops, and people continue to arrive."

The city is tightly encircled by government troops, military vehicles are stationed at the exit from the city, and it is impossible to get into Andijan from other cities, reported Zainabitdinov.

If the situation did not seem so dire, I would try to crack wise about someone determining the distance along which a street is covered in people using the number of bus stops as a measure - only in the former USSR.

Update - at 18:00 MSK, RIA posted another report from Zainabitdinov - here it is, translated, in its entirety:

There is intensive gunfire in Andijan, and many victims - Saidjakhon Zainabitdinov, chairman of the Andijan regional human rights defense society.

Short and scary.