More than 80 people have been reported injured in the operation, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Authorities in the former Soviet republic had been seeking to arrest Atambayev on corruption allegations upheld by the current president.

"It has been clear for some time that a stand-off between the current and former presidents was inevitable, especially after Atambayev said he would not work with the current president and would seek to 'work around him,'" said Eurasia expert Chris Weafer.

"The country was facing the prospect of two governments under the elected president and the former president," said Weafer, a senior partner at the Eurasia-focused investment firm Macro-Advisory.

Kyrgyzstan's current president, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, condemned his predecessor as a law enforcement officer was killed in an earlier attempted storming of the residence.

"Atambayev and his supporters put up armed resistance with the use of a firearm. They have gone far beyond the law," Jeenbekov told parliament.

Russia is closely following events in Kyygyzstan, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday as he arrived in the country to attend a meeting of heads of government of Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states.

"In my opinion, it is clear that Kyrgyzstan has already met its limit on revolutions in the 21st century, and it will be very undesirable if such events will lead to political and economic instability in the country. It will affect many people who live in this country, and it will affect our Eurasian project," Medvedev noted.

A landlocked country bordering China, Kyrgyzstan has experienced two revolutions in the past two decades, in 2005 and 2010.

Australian Associated Press