STEPS are being taken to bring a group of Bournemouth University students home from Kyrgyzstan following recent unrest.

The group of four is currently undertaking a conservation project in the Central Asian country as part of their BA degree course in Conservation Science.

Professor Matthew Bennett, from the university’s School of Conservation Sciences, said: “We do have students out in Kyrgyzstan but there is no cause for concern as they are in the process of returning to the UK over the next few days. We are in daily contact with the students and they are happy out there.

“They are due to come back on Sunday.”

Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, has seen violence in recent weeks along the border with neighbouring Uzbekistan.

The unrest, centred in the southern part of the country around the city of Osh, has left more than 130 people dead.

Tensions have been high in the area since President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown in April in an uprising.

Among the Kyrgyz population, his supporters organised resistance to the interim government by seizing government offices and taking officials hostage.

The Uzbek minority has displayed sympathy to the new government in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital city.

Criminal gangs and drug dealers have exploited the power vacuum and there have been clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek gangs.

Due to rumours of atrocities from both sides, angry mobs from other towns and villages have descended on Osh, forcing large numbers of ethnic Uzbeks to flee across the border.

Professor Bennett said the Bournemouth students were in a part of Kyrgyzstan which had not been affected by the unrest.