Security guards outside a hotel opened fire on hundreds of market traders who had come to the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh Monday to demand fair market practices, police said. Four people were wounded. About 350 people, half of them women, came from the border town of Kara-Suu to demonstrate against Bayaman Erkinbayev, an Osh-based legislator who is connected to the market in their town. They were confronted by a crowd of about 150 people outside the Alay Hotel, believed to be owned by Erkinbayev. Erkinbayev\'s supporters wore white T-shirts with a portrait of the legislator and held Kyrgyz state flags, police said. They said four Erkinbayev supporters fired at the crowd after the two groups threw Molotov cocktails at each other. A spokesman for the Osh regional police, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was not clear why the guards had started shooting. He said four men shot at the crowd with assault rifles. Three people were hospitalized following the incident, and police cited witnesses as saying one other person was injured. Police closed off the area around the hotel after the incident and said order had been restored. Police were looking for suspects in the violence. The Kara-Suu market also was the site of reported unrest Thursday, when about 150 people armed with sticks and shouting slogans against Erkinbayev stormed an administrative building and beat up the guards. Erkinbayev, a key figure behind the March protests that overthrew the former regime of President Askar Akayev, runs an array of businesses in southern Kyrgyzstan. He also is well-known for his achievements as a wrestler. He was wounded and shot in the nose by unknown assailants in April. He claimed the attack was linked to his plans at the time to run for president in July, but prosecutors said the shooting wasn\'t likely to have had political motives. Still, politics and business are deeply intertwined in Kyrgyzstan, where the Akayev regime was widely accused of corruption and trying to take over lucrative businesses. (AP)