Protesters have stormed the office of a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan demanding its nationalisation and more social benefits.

About 2,000 people descended on the office of the Kumtor mine operated by Canadian-based firm Centerra Gold in protests that have been going on for several days.

Police arrested 80 protesters on Thursday night after several hundred, some on horseback, entered a power transformer unit and cut off electricity to the mine for several hours.

Centerra says the protests are illegal and that it is working with the government and local authorities to resolve the situation.

Kumtor accounts for about 12% of the economy of the ex-Soviet nation of five million people on China's mountainous western border.

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